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 re...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.展开更多
文摘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.