Massive Skull Metastasis From Follicular Thyroid Carcinoma − How Ignorance Can Harm Your Health

Abstract

We report a 70 years old female, who presented with huge swellings over the left forehead, left clavicular region, anterior neck, occipital region and the right side of the scalp. The first swelling appeared 8 years back. She had deranged thyroid function tests and highly raised serum thyroglobulin levels. Her T3 level was 300.75 ng/dl (normal range: 40–181 ng/dl); T4 level was 6.7 µg/dl (normal range: 5–10.7 µg/dl) and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level was 0.09 µIU/ml (normal range: 0.5–8.9 µIU/ml). Her serum thyroglobulin level was 30,000 ng/ml (normal range: 0.73–84 ng/ml). We have reported this case due to the unusual presentation of the patient with massive metastatic lesions from a primary thyroid cancer with highly raised serum thyroglobulin levels. Metastatic tumors to the skull are most often from breast, lung and prostate malignancies. In thyroid cancer, Nagamine et al. reported skull metastasis in only 2.5% of the cases. Along with radioactive iodine therapy, curative resection of solitary bone metastasis, wherever possible, is associated with improved survival, especially in younger patients of metastatic thyroid cancer. Only the light of knowledge and health education can dispel the darkness of ignorance. This rare case report highlights the importance of educating the masses, especially the people living in villages, so that it does not take 8 years, as in our case, to present oneself to a tertiary health care facility.