Follicular thyroid carcinoma metastatic to the skin

BACKGROUND: Cutaneous metastases from differentiated thyroid carcinoma are rare: only 41 cases have been reported in the litterature. CASE REPORT: A 57-year-old woman underwent total thyroidectomy for a poor d ifferentiated follicular thyroid carcinoma, with involvement of sternum and pulmonary metastases. Despite iodine-131 ablative therapy (> 1Ci) she deve loped a skin metastasis of the scalp 9 years after the initial surgery. She died of widely metastatic thyroid carcinoma. DISCUSSION: Follicular carcinoma has a greater preponderance than papillary carcinoma for cutaneous metastases. The majority of skin metastases are lo calized to the head and neck The development of a cutaneous metastasis is c ommonly associated with metastasis to other distant tissues and is followed by a deteriorating course and eventual death resulting from malignancy (C) 2000. Masson, Paris.