Journal of Clinical Case Reports

Unusual Presentation of Insular Thyroid Carcinoma as a Chest Wall Mass

Abstract

Mohsen Kolahdouzan, Noushin Afshar Moghaddam, Mohammad Taghi Rezaei and Lobaneh Janbazi

Poorly Differentiated (Insular) Thyroid Carcinoma (PDITC) is an uncommon thyroglobulin producing neoplasm, intermediate in aggressiveness, morphologically and biologically placed between Well-Differentiated Carcinomas (WDC) of follicular cell origin and undifferentiated anaplastic carcinoma and first described by Sakamoto et al. and Carcangiu et al. The tumor occurs in an older group than the WDCs (also it can occur in adolescents. It is described with higher mortality than WDC. The present cancer staging system (TNM) for thyroid cancer considers differentiated and undifferentiated tumors while ignoring this intermediate type, which is also called poorly differentiated tumor.