A Case of Thyroid Chondrosarcoma

Abstract

We herein report a rare case of thyroid chondrosarcoma in which laryngeal preservation surgery was performed. The patient was a man in his 40s. A hard mass was palpated on the right lateral side of the thyroid cartilage. Enhanced computed tomography showed a tumor on the right lateral side of the thyroid cartilage with partial destruction of the thyroid cartilage. Ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology suggested the lesion was a tumor of cartilage origin. We therefore diagnosed a thyroid cartilage tumor. We performed partial laryngectomy. Intraoperative findings revealed a hard tumor contiguous with the thyroid cartilage deep in the right omohyoid muscle. The right two-thirds of the thyroid cartilage were cut longitudinally, and the tumor was removed. The pathological diagnosis was a grade 2 chondrosarcoma of thyroid cartilage origin. Two years after surgery, there was no recurrence. There have been 37 cases of laryngeal chondrosarcoma reported in Japan, and only 8 were of thyroid cartilage origin. Surgical treatment was selected in all cases, with 16 cases treated by total laryngectomy and 21 cases by partial laryngectomy. Recurrence was reported in five cases, including local recurrence in three cases, cervical recurrence in one case, and distant metastasis in one case.