Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Patients with Graves’ disease are at a 2.5 times higher risk of developing thyroid cancer than the general population.

Objective: We report here a case of a papillary microcarcinoma discovered in patient with graves’ disease.

Case report: This report is about a 51-year-old woman treated with anti-thyroid drugs and β blockers for Graves’ disease. Cervical ultrasound found an enlarged, hypervascular thyroid gland with a 10 mm nodule classified EUTIRADS 5. Indications for surgery were: failed medical therapy after 3 years of treatment and concomitant suspicious thyroid nodule. The patient underwent total thyroidectomy. Intraoperative examination suggested a papillary thyroid carcinoma. A central neck dissection was performed. Histologic exam confirmed the diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma associated with Graves’ disease. The patient underwent ablative radioiodine therapy. After 9 years of follow-up, she had no recurrence.

Conclusion: Over 85% of thyroid cancer in patients with GD was papillary thyroid carcinoma, although other histologic types including follicular, medullary, and anaplastic carcinoma could be found in some studies. Patients with GD tend to have microcarcinomas Thyroid USG can identify more thyroid nodules or cancers in patients with GD, compared with palpation or radioactive iodine scintigraphy.