Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma in a Hemiagenetic Thyroid Gland: A Case Report

ABSTRACT

Thyroid hemiagenesis is a rare congenital pathology and it is secondary to a defect which occurs during embryonic development of the thyroid tissue. Usually, diagnosis is incidentally made by imaging study of the neck or during diagnosis of a related thyroid gland disease. Absence of the left lobe is observed in near all cases, but involvement of the right lobe has also been reported in the literature, albeit very rare. Although true prevalence is not known, the reported prevalence ranges from 1/1900 to 1/2675. Presence of thyroid nodules, subacute thyroiditis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and Grave’s disease in thyroid hemiagenesis has previously been reported in the literature. Combination of thyroid papillary cancer and thyroid hemiagenesis is rarely reported. In this report, we present the case of papillary cancer in a solitary nodule in a hemiagenetic thyroid gland in a patient with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and treatment modalities thereof.