A special case of bilateral ovarian metastases in a woman with papillary carcinoma of the thyroid

Papillary thyroid carcinoma is a slow growing tumor with low metastatic potential. The most frequent sites of distant metastases are lung and bone; less frequent sites are brain, liver, kidney, and skin. Ovarian metastases from papillary thyroid carcinoma are exceptional. We describe a case of bilateral ovarian metastases from a papillary thyroid carcinoma associated with autoimmune thyroiditis in a 38-year-old woman who underwent thyroidectomy and cervical lymph-node dissection 7 years before, followed by 948 mCi of 131I. A primary ovarian cancer could be excluded by the typical pathological aspects of a papillary thyroid carcinoma in a context of an aggressive form of thyroid cancer. On the other hand, the clinical history and the absence of normal thyroid epithelium and teratomatous components could exclude a papillary thyroid carcinoma arising in struma ovarii. This is a singular case of papillary thyroid carcinoma metastasizing to the ovary, combined with an autoimmune thyroiditis.