Recurrent medullary thyroid carcinoma treated with percutaneous ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation:A case report

摘要

BACKGROUND Treatment for neck lymph node metastases after adequate initial surgery in medullary thyroid carcinoma(MTC)has been controversial.Ultrasound(US)-guided radiofrequency ablation(RFA)has been widely used in recurrent welldifferentiated thyroid carcinoma.Here,we report for the first time the use of RFA in a patient with recurrent MTC.CASE SUMMARY We report the case of a 56-year-old woman with cervical lymph node metastases of MTC.Four years previously,she had undergone a total thyroidectomy and neck lymph node dissection.A neck US revealed many enlarged nodes during the follow-up period.Moreover,the serum calcitonin jumped to 198.17 pg/mL,which strongly indicated the recurrence of MTC.Subsequently,two metastatic lymph nodes were confirmed by US-guided fine-needle aspiration-cytology and fineneedle aspiration-calcitonin,and then the patient was treated with RFA.Four months later,the neck US and a contrast-enhanced US showed obvious shrinkage in the ablation zones,and the serum calcitonin dropped to 11.80 pg/mL.CONCLUSION This case suggests that RFA may be an effective and safe treatment for local recurrent MTC.