Case Report

Intrathyroidal parathyroid carcinoma: a case report with clinical and histological findings

Labiba Temmim¹ , Fred Sinowatz² , Wiam I Hussein³ , Osama Al-Sanea⁴ and Hady El-Khodary¹

¹  Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Saad Specialist Hospital, Al-Khobar Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

²  Institute of Histology & Embryology, University of Munich, Germany

³  Section of Endocrinology Saad Specialist Hospital, Al-Khobar Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

⁴  Section of Endocrine Surgery, Saad Specialist Hospital, Al-Khobar Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

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Diagnostic Pathology 2008, 3:46doi:10.1186/1746-1596-3-46

Published:	25 November 2008

Abstract

The chance of an intrathyroidal occurrence of a parathyroid gland is about 1–3%. Among the causes of hyperparathyroidism, parathyroid cases occur in less than 1% of patients. Here we present the case of a 63 year old Saudi female suffering from an intrathryroidal parathyroid carcinoma. The suspicion coming from the clinical investigations that the removed tumor tissue may be a parathyroid carcinoma could be confirmed by histology. Additionally non-radioactive in situ hybridization to localize mRNA transcripts for Cyclin D1 and immunohistochemical localization of Cyclin D1 was performed. Although parathyroid adenoma and carcinoma have disparate natural history, it can be difficult to differentiate between the two entities. Clinical presentation, operative findings may raise suspicion, but may not be conclusive especially if there is no evidence of invasion or metastasis, especially if the gland was intrathyroidal.