Thyroid, Papillary carcinoma [LMP12756]

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Diagnostic Modality: 
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Disease Category: 
Neoplasia
Diagnosis: 
Papillary carcinoma
Species: 
Human
Organ System: 
Endocrine System
Gender: 
Male
Age: 
62 years
Diagnosis Code: 
ICD-10: C73 | ICD-O: 8260/3
Slide Contributor Information
Yoon, J., Lu, F.

Keywords

cytology, thyroid, papillary

Clinical History

Cytologic smear from thyroid taken at intraoperative consultation.

Clinical Discussion

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is the most common type of thyroid malignancy, with strong female predominance (~4:1). Frozen sections of the thyroid gland are rarely done; the diagnosis of PTC is generally available to surgeons with thyroid fine needle aspirates usually being done prior to the surgery.

The diagnosis is heavily reliant on the cytological features, and the characteristic nuclear features are expected to be present in the majority of the tumour cells. These nuclear features include: 1) nuclear crowding, with frequent overlapping, 2) powdery, ground-glass ("orphan Annie") nuclei, 3) abundant nuclear grooves, and 4) nuclear pseudoinclusions. Mitoses are scanty or absent. On histology, as the name suggests, papillary patterns can certainly be seen, but various other architectural patterns can be seen in PTC, and multiple patterns can be observed in a single tumour.