Adrenal metastasis from papillary thyroid cancer: staged surgical resection.

Authors

Dhalapathy Sadacharan, Abinaya Venkateswaran, Swaminathan Kalyanasundaram, Shriraam Mahadevan

Published in

BMJ case reports. Volume 19. Issue 10. Oct 05, 2026. Epub Oct 05, 2026.

Abstract

Adrenal gland metastasis from papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is a rare and diagnostically challenging event. Approximately 15 cases of adrenal involvement have been published to date. We report a man in his 70s with previously treated PTC (pT2N1bMx) who re-presented with right cervical lymph node recurrence and a right adrenal mass measuring 5.7×6.5 cm detected on staging cross-sectional imaging. A CT-guided biopsy confirmed metastatic PTC. We performed staged surgery - right cervical lymph node dissection followed by open right adrenalectomy 4 weeks later. Serum thyroglobulin fell from >500 ng/mL preoperatively to <1 ng/mL at 6 months, with no evidence of disease on CT of the neck, chest and abdomen. This case illustrates the possibility of synchronous locoregional and adrenal recurrence in PTC and highlights that cross-sectional imaging of the abdomen is indicated when thyroglobulin is markedly elevated, as recommended by current guidelines.

PMID:
42833853
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 06 Oct 2026.

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