The Clinical Importance of Tumor Thrombus in Internal Jugular Vein Related to Papillary Thyroid Cancer

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to present a case with a previous thyroid surgery, who developed an internal jugular vein thrombus due to papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) in the remnant tissue. Case: A 54-year-old female patient, with a previous subtotal thyroidectomy, presented with a mass on the left side of her neck. Thyroid ultrasound disclosed a heterogeneous nodule of 67x48x32 mm in the left thyroid lobe. An isoechoic tumor thrombus was observed extending intraluminally from the middle thyroid vein to the internal jugular vein. No lymph node or solid organ invasion were detected in the neck. Fine needle aspiration biopsy revealed cytological findings consistent with PTC. Total thyroidectomy, left sided central neck dissection and partial left jugular vein resection was performed. The pathologic examination revealed mid-differentiated unifocal encapsulated follicular variant of PTC. The whole-body scan performed after the postoperative treatment of 150 mCi of radioactive iodine, revealed multiple lung metastases. Conclusion: The presence of a tumor thrombus in the thyroid vein or internal jugular vein is strongly suspicious for malignancy even in the absence of malignant findings on cytology. It is an important finding that is highly suspicious for distant metastasis in the cytologically diagnosed patients.