Pelvic and spinal localizations of giant metastases from thyroid carcinomas

Purpose of the study We report 8 cases of giant metastases in 7 patients wi th a pelvis or spinal localization in patients with differentiated carcinom a of the thyroid gland. Material and method Surgery was indicated for major functional disorders: p athological fracture, neurological complications. Ail patients were treated by embolization, tumor resection and reconstruction. All patients were giv en suppressive doses of thyroid hormones and 8 received complementary radio therapy. Radioactive iodine, 100 mCu was also given in 5 cases. Outcome was analyzed retrospectively. Results Two postoperative infections were successfully treated by surgical cleaning in one operation. There were no surgery-related neurological compl ications. One patient died in the immediate postoperative period due to the cancer. Mean follow-up in the other patients was 4 years. Functional outco me was excellent without local recurrence or mechanical complications. Discussion These results suggest that surgical resection of giant bone meta stases from thyroid carcinomas can provide favorable functional outcome sim ilar to that achieved for small-sized metastases.