Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma Metastatic to the Skin: A Cutaneous Manifestation of a Widely Disseminated Malignancy

Metastases located in the skin from thyroid carcinoma, especially the medullary type, are rare and known to occur in the setting of disseminated neoplastic disease.

We report a case of a 72-year-old man, diagnosed as having medullary thyroid carcinoma, on whom a total thyroidectomy and removal of cervical lymph nodes were carried out. The medical treatment after surgery was ¹³¹I and hormone therapy. Later, the patient received ⁶⁰Co teletherapy on the cervical region. On posterior examination, the patient showed a relapse of nodal metastases and pulmonary, hepatic and bone metastases. At that stage, he showed a single nodular lesion on the supraclavicular region. Therefore, a diagnosis of metastatic medullary thyroid carcinoma was made. He had received palliative treatment for the remaining metastatic lesions. During the follow-up, the patient's general condition slowly deteriorated and he died a few days after the last diagnosis. No autopsy was performed.