Abstract
The diagnostic accuracy of medullary carcinoma is very high because it commonly presents characteristic features, including a dispersed cell pattern formed by pleomorphic cells with extremely eccentric nuclei that contain coarsely granular to salt-pepper-type chromatin. However, medullary carcinoma cells sometimes demonstrate a monomorphic cell pattern, comprised exclusively of plasmacytoid cells with abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm and sharing strong similarity with oxyphilic cell neoplasms, thus constituting the important diagnostic pitfalls. A distinction between Hürthle cell neoplasm and medullary carcinoma can be made by the extremely marginal location of the nuclei with coarsely granular to salt-pepper-type chromatin for the medullary carcinoma cells and prominent macronucleoli for the Hürthle cells. Sometimes apparent cytoplasmic granularity could be observed in Hürthle cells, which is different from the fibrillar cytoplasm of medullary carcinoma cells with wet-fixation hematoxylin-eosin-stained preparation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Kakudo K, Miyauchi A, Takai S, et al. C-cell carcinoma of the thyroid -papillary type. Acta Pathol Jpn. 1979;29:653–9.
Lee J, Hasteh F. Oncocytic variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma associated with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis: a case report and review of the literature. Diagn Cytopathol. 2009;37:600–6.
Kakudo K, Miyauchi A, Ogihara T, et al. Medullary carcinoma of the thyroid. Giant cell type. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 1978;102:445–7.
Kaushal S, Iyer VK, Mathur SR. Fine needle aspiration cytology of medullary carcinoma of the thyroid with a focus on rare variants: a review of 78 cases. Cytopathology. 2011;22:95–105.
Kini SR, et al. Thyroid cytopathology: an atlas and text. 2nd ed; 2015.
Forrest CH, Frost FA, de Boer WB, et al. Medullary carcinoma of the thyroid: accuracy of diagnosis of fine-needle aspiration cytology. Cancer. 1998;25:295–302.
Nguyen GK, Ginsberg J, Crockford PM, et al. Hashimoto’s thyroiditis: cytodiagnostic accuracy and pitfalls. Diagn Cytopathol. 1997;16:531–6.
Alaedeen DI, Khiyami A, McHenry CR. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy specimen with a predominance of Hürthle cells: a dilemma in the management of nodular thyroid disease. Surgery. 2005;138:650–6.
Elliott DD, Pitman MB, Bloom L, et al. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy of Hürthle cell lesions of the thyroid gland: a cytomorphologic study of 139 cases with statistical analysis. Cancer. 2006;108:102–9.
Auger M. Hürthle cells in fine-needle aspirates of the thyroid: a review of their diagnostic criteria and significance. Cancer Cytopathol. 2014;122:241–9.
Trimboli P, Cremonini N, Ceriani L, et al. Calcitonin measurement in aspiration needle washout fluids has higher sensitivity than cytology in detecting medullary thyroid cancer: a retrospective multicenter study. Clin Endocrinol. 2014;80:135–40.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Zhu, Y., Wang, T. (2019). Medullary (C Cell) Thyroid Carcinoma or Oxyphilic Follicular Neoplasms. In: Kakudo, K. (eds) Thyroid FNA Cytology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1897-9_39
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1897-9_39
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1896-2
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-1897-9
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)