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Annals Thyroid Res. 2021; 7(1): 320-320.
Tall Cell Variant of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: Recognizing a Rare Aggressive Variant
Shweta Agarwal*
Department of Pathology, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, USA
*Corresponding author: Shweta Agarwal, Department of Pathology, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, New Mexico, MSC08 4640, University of New Mexico, NM-87131, USA
Received: January 29, 2021; Accepted: February 24, 2021; Published: March 03, 2021
Clinical Image
Papillary Thyroid Cancer (PTC) accounts for 80–90% of all thyroid malignancies [1]. The most common morphology is the classical papillary which has an indolent course. Aggressive variants exist, of which Tall Cell Variant (TCV) is the most common. TCV is defined as a PTC in which 30% or more of tumor cells are 2-3 times as long as they are wide [1,2]. The histology image (Figure 1A, magnification 4x) shows tumor cells arranged back to back with abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm, and typical nuclear features of PTC; namely overlapping enlarged nuclei, intranuclear grooves, and occasional pseudoinclusions. Figure 1B (magnification: 20x) shows a high power view of the same case where the tall cell features of individual tumor cells can be better appreciated (arrows). This important feature should be recognized and reported in pathology reports as TCVs exhibit worse clinical course with extensive lymph node metastasis, extra thyroidal extension and high rate of recurrence [1,2].
Figure 1:
References
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- Ghossein R, Livolsi VA. Papillary thyroid carcinoma tall cell variant. Thyroid. 2008; 18: 1179-1181.
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