Challenges in the correct assessment of a case of aggressive thyroid carcinoma with synchronous breast cancer, case report and review of the literature: essential role of radiopharmaceuticals
Background: Thyroid carcinoma represents a complex pathology that can still be considered a medical challenge, despite having a better prognosis and life expectancy than most other neoplasms, also the scenario of multiple malignancies involving thyroid cancer is nowadays a common reality. Materials and methods: We reviewed the literature regarding the aggressive presentation of synchronous thyroid and breast cancer. In the current paper we are reporting the case of a 59 years-old woman, diagnosed with invasive ductal breast carcinoma and papillary thyroid carcinoma, presenting a natural history of both aggressive synchronous tumors. At the moment of hospitalization, the diagnostic was breast carcinoma with multiple secondary lesions, suggestive for lung and bone metastases, and nodular goiter. Results: Searching the literature PUBMED with the terms “thyroid carcinoma and synchronous breast carcinoma we found 86 studies; introducing the term “aggressive” the result included 4 studies, among them none being relevant for aggressive and synchronous. A similar search was done in SCOPUS finding 92 documents and after introducing the term aggressive, the number of papers was 8, none being for the synchronous aggressive metastatic thyroid and breast carcinoma. The majority of imaging diagnostic tools were used in this particular medical case, in order to ensure the best potential outcome. The final diagnostic was papillary thyroid carcinoma with lung and unusual multiple bone metastases and synchronous invasive ductal breast carcinoma with subcutaneous metastases. Conclusion: The case illustrates the challenges in correct assessment of oncologic patients, despite the advances in medical imaging and technologies and underlines the essential role of nuclear medicine procedures in the diagnostic and therapy protocols.