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Head and Neck Pathology

, Volume 13, Issue 4, pp 562–572 | Cite as

Secretory Carcinoma of the Thyroid Gland: Report of a Highly Aggressive Case Clinically Mimicking Undifferentiated Carcinoma and Review of the Literature

  • Megan A. Desai
  • Mitra Mehrad
  • Kim A. Ely
  • Justin A. Bishop
  • James Netterville
  • Joseph M. Aulino
  • James S. LewisJr.Email author
Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

After being described in the salivary glands as a malignancy with features essentially identical to those of the breast, secretory carcinoma (SC) (formerly mammary analogue SC) has now been identified in other sites including the skin, lung, and thyroid gland. In the breast, SC has a relatively favorable prognosis. Likewise when arising in the salivary glands, it is generally considered to be a low to intermediate grade carcinoma; however, there is a range of clinical behavior with occasional patients dying of progressive disease. SCs of the thyroid gland are rare, and reports suggest a relatively aggressive behavior, at least relative to well differentiated carcinomas such as papillary carcinoma and minimally invasive follicular carcinoma. We present a patient with a highly aggressive thyroid gland SC that mimicked undifferentiated carcinoma clinically. The patient had widespread metastatic disease and died rapidly from airway compromise. We also review the literature for reported cases of thyroid gland SC in order to better establish the clinical features and expected clinical course of such tumors occurring at this site.

Keywords

Mammary analogue secretory carcinoma Thyroid ETV6 gene rearrangement Papillary carcinoma Anaplastic carcinoma 
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Notes

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of interest

The authors report that there are no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  • Megan A. Desai
    • 1
  • Mitra Mehrad
    • 1
  • Kim A. Ely
    • 1
  • Justin A. Bishop
    • 2
  • James Netterville
    • 3
  • Joseph M. Aulino
    • 4
  • James S. LewisJr.
    • 1
    • 3
    Email author
  1. 1.Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and ImmunologyVanderbilt University Medical CenterNashvilleUSA
  2. 2.Department of PathologyUniversity of Texas SouthwesternDallasUSA
  3. 3.Department of OtolaryngologyVanderbilt University Medical CenterNashvilleUSA
  4. 4.Department of Radiology and Radiological SciencesVanderbilt University Medical CenterNashvilleUSA

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