Abstract
Primary leiomyosarcoma of the thyroid gland is rare. In this paper, we report a case of high-grade leiomyosarcoma of the thyroid gland in a 43-year-old man. Lung metastasis was also noted in this patient. Despite of aggressive surgical treatment, the patient died of uncontrolled local recurrent disease 6 months after the initial operation. Immunohistochemical studies showed the tumor cells were positive for c-kit proto-oncogene product. Imatinib mesylate was used as a post-operative adjuvant treatment but the response was poor. The role of tyrosine kinase inhibitors on the treatment of thyroid leiomyosarcomas is still unclear because this is the first report of c-kit over-expression in such tumors. Nevertheless, our results show that c-kit over-expression might not be an indicator of good response to imatinib mesylate treatment in thyroid leiomyosarcomas.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Kawahara E, Nakanishi I, Terahata S, Ikegaki S (1988) Leiomyosarcoma of the thyroid gland: a case report with a comparative study of five cases of anaplastic carcinoma. Cancer 62:2558–2563
Chetty R, Clark SP, Dowling JP (1993) Leiomyosarcoma of the thyroid: immunohistochemical and ultrastructural study. Pathology 25:203–205
Lida Y, Katoh R, Yoshioka M, Oyama T, Kawaoi A (1993) Primary leiomyosarcoma of the thyroid gland. Acta Pathol Jpn 43:71–75
Thompson LD, Wenig BM, Adair CF, Shmookler BM, Heffess CS (1997) Primary smooth muscle tumors of the thyroid gland. Cancer 79:579–587
Tsugawa K, Koyanagi N, Nakanishi K, Wada H, Tanoue K, Hashizume M, Sugimachi K (1999) Leiomyosarcoma of the thyroid gland with rapid growth and tracheal obstruction: a partial thyroidectomy and tracheostomy using an ultrasonically activated scalpel can be safely performed with less bleeding. Eur J Med Res 4:483–487
Takayama F, Takashima S, Matsuba H, Kobayashi S, Ito N, Sone S (2001) MR imaging of primary leiomyosarcoma of the thyroid gland. Eur J Radiol 37:36–41
Takashima S, Morimoto S, Ikezoe J, Takai S, Kobayashi T, Koayma H, Nishiyama K, Kozuka T (1990) CT evaluation of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. Am J Roentgenol 154:1079–1085
Mills SE, Stallings RG, Austin MB (1986) Angiomatoid carcinoma of the thyroid gland: anaplastic carcinoma with follicular and medullary features mimicking angiosarcoma. Am J Clin Pathol 86:674–678
Venkatesh YS, Ordonez NG, Schultz PN, Hickey RC, Goepfert H, Samaan NA (1990) Anaplastic carcinoma of the thyroid. A clinicopathologic study of 121 cases. Cancer 66:321–330
Kaur A, Jayaram G (1990) Thyroid tumors: cytomorphology of medullary, clinically anaplastic, and miscellaneous thyroid neoplasms. Diagn Cytopathol 6:383–389
Rosen IB, Azadian A, Walfish PG, Salem S, Lansdown E, Bedard YC (1993) Ultrasound-guides fine-needle aspiration biopsy in the management of thyroid disease. Am J Surg 166:346–349
Ferlito A, Boccato P, Shaha AR, Carbone A, Noyek AM, Doglioni C, Bradley PJ, Rinaldo A (2001) The art of diagnosis in head and neck tumors. Acta Otolaryngol 121:324–328
Maeda H, Yamagata A, Nishikawa S, Yoshinaga K, Kobayashi S, Nishi K, Nishikawa SI (1992) Requirement of c-kit for development of intestinal pacemaker system. Development 116:369–375
Horie K, Fujita J, Takakura K, Kanzaki H, Suginami H, Iwai M, Nakayama H, Mori T (1993) The expression of c-kit protein in human adult and fetal tissues. Hum Reprod 8:1955–1962
Lammie A, Drobnjak M, Gerald W, Saad A, Cote R, Cordon-Cardo C (1994) Expression of c-kit and kit ligand proteins in normal human tissues. J Histochem Cytochem 42:1417–1425
Arber DA, Tamayo R, Weiss LM (1998) Paraffin section detection of the c-kit gene production (CD117) in human tissue: value in the diagnosis of mast cell disorders. Hum Pathol 29:498–504
Muro MJ, Druker BJ (2001) Chronic myelogenous leukemia. Curr Opin Oncol 13:3–7
Wieczorek TJ, Faquin WC, Rubin BP, Cibas ES (2001) Cytologic diagnosis of gastrointestinal stromal tumor with emphasis on the differential diagnosis with leiomyosarcoma. Cancer 93:276–287
Wang L, Felix JC, Lee JL, Tan PY, Tourgeman DE, O’Meara AT, Amezcua CA (2003) The proto-oncogene c-kit is expressed in leiomyosarcomas of the uterus. Gynecol Oncol 90:402–406
Fujimoto Y, Nakanishi Y, Yoshimura K, Shimoda T (2003) Clinicopathologic study of primary malignant gastrointestinal stromal tumor of the stomach, with special reference to prognostic factor: analysis of results in 140 surgically resected patients. Gastric Cancer 6:39–48
Arteaga CL, Baselga J (2004) Tyrosine kinase inhibitor: why does the current process of clinical development not apply to them? Cancer Cell 5:525–531
Heinrich MC, Blanke CD, Druker BJ, Corless CL (2002) Inhibition of KIT tyrosine kinase activity: a novel molecular approach to the treatment of KIT-positive malignancies. J Clin Oncol 20:1692–1703
Dagher R, Cohen M, Williams G, Rothmann M, Gobburu J, Robbie G, Rahman A, Chen G, Staten A, Griebel D, Pazdur R (2002) Approval summary: imatinib mesylate in the treatment of metastatic and/or unresectable malignant gastrointestinal stromal tumor. Clin Cancer Res 8:3034–3038
Rapollini MR, Amunni G, Villanucci A, et al (2004) c-KIT expression in patients with uterine leiomyosarcomas. A potential alternative therapeutic treatment. Clin Cancer Res 10:3500–3503
Serrano C, Mackintosh C, Herrero D, et al (2005) Imatinib is not a potential alternative treatment for uterine leiomyosarcoma. Clin Cancer Res 11:4977–4979
Acknowledgments
We thank Dr I-Shiou Jan for providing the fine needle aspiration cytology pictures.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Day, AS., Lou, PJ., Lin, WC. et al. Over-expression of c-kit in a primary leiomyosarcoma of the thyroid gland. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 264, 705–708 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-007-0242-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-007-0242-z