Incidental cervical lymph node metastasis of papillary thyroid cancer in neck dissection specimens from a tongue squamous cell carcinoma patient: a case report

We report a rare case of lymph node metastasis of papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) incidentally detected in a neck dissection specimen of tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). A 42-year-old Japanese woman was diagnosed with tongue SCC (T1N0M0, Stage I). Partial glossectomy with supraomohyoid neck dissection was performed under general anesthesia, and histopathological examinations revealed primary SCC of the tongue and neck metastasis of PTC in neck dissection specimens. A few months later, total thyroidectomy and left modified radical neck dissection were performed by thyroid surgeons. The histopathological diagnosis was PTC of both the thyroid glands. There was no evidence of tumor recurrence or distant metastasis at the 9-month follow-up.