Metastasis as presenting feature of thyroid follicular carcinoma; report of a patient thyroidectomized for benign multinodular nontoxic goiter.

CUTANEOUS METASTASES of well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) are very rare and infrequently they are
the presenting feature. In these cases immunohistochemical determination of thyroglobulin (Tg) on the metastatic lesion led to the diagnosis of the thyroid cancer. We present the case of a 65-year-old female who noticed early in 2002 a pigmented nodule approximately 1 cm in diameter on her scalp. In March 2003 the nodule was removed
and histopathology revealed “cutaneous metastasis from
solid carcinoma of follicular type”. Immunohistochemistry of the cutaneous specimen was positive for Tg thus allowing the diagnosis of metastatic differentiated thyroid cancer.