A Rare Constellation of Hürthle Cell Thyroid Carcinoma and Parathyroid Carcinoma

Abstract

Separate occurrence of thyroid and parathyroid carcinoma in patients is extremely rare, and to the best of our knowledge, only 7 patients with documented parathyroid and papillary thyroid carcinomas have been described formerly in published reports. We report a patient with an extremely unusual clinical presentation of Hürthle cell carcinoma in thyroid and parathyroid carcinoma. The patient displayed a rare presentation of life-threatening hypercalcaemia after total para-thyroidectomy and failed to respond to standard therapy. Our review of available literature yielded insufficient evidence in managing such. When a patient with thyroid cancer is diagnosed, checking for serum calcium is advised. This is considered a useful method for detecting possible incidental parathyroid lesion and screening the probable concealed parathyroid pathology.

Keywords

• hypercalcaemia
• hashimoto's thyroiditis
• primary hyperparathyroidism
• thyroid nodule