Single Rib Metastasis of Follicular Thyroid Cancer

The patient is a 64-year-old woman with a history of right hemithyroidectomy 35 years earlier due to follicular thyroid cancer. Thirty-three years later, the thyroidectomy was completed. The extension study at that time ruled out distant metastasis and the patient received an ablative dose of I¹³¹ (150 mCi). Two years afterwards, high thyroglobulin levels were detected with a tracking image of a single metastasis in the costal region (Fig. 1). The fifth rib on the left side was partially resected, and a radiograph of the resected area (Fig. 2) confirmed the presence of metastasis. The pathology study demonstrated bone metastasis of follicular thyroid cancer. Two months into follow-up, normalization of thyroglobulin levels was observed.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2