Macrofollicular Variant of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Diagnosed by Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy

BACKGROUND: Macrofollicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is an uncommon, recently described thyroid tumor. By frozen section it can be confused easily with goiter or macrofollicular adenoma. CASE: A 41-year-old female presented with a huge mass in the right thyroid lobe, cold on scintigraphy. By fine needle aspiration fluid was obtained. Smears of the sediment of the fluid showed epithelial cells with morphologic features diagnostic of PTC. Frozen section diagnosis was benign. CONCLUSION: This is the first reported case of macro-follicular variant of PTC diagnosed preoperatively by cytology. In our case the cytology was similar to that of cystic PTC.