Isolated thyroid metastasis revealed an unknown lung adenocarcinoma: a case report

INTRODUCTION: Cancer metastasis to the thyroid is extremely rare. The most common sites that have been reported to metastasize to the thyroid gland are breast and kidney. As to primary lung cancer metastasizing to the thyroid gland, only a few cases have been described in the literature. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case of a 37-year-old white Arabian woman who had never smoked tobacco products for whom a malignant thyroid mass revealed a primary lung tumor. She had a surgical excision for both the thyroid and the pulmonary tumors, and received adjuvant chemotherapy. At 1 year, she is still in remission. CONCLUSIONS: Our case is rare as it describes a case where the thyroid lesion was the revealing sign of an unknown lung carcinoma. Management of thyroid metastases should depend on the individual situation and surgical excision should be proposed whenever a patient’s condition is favorable.