[Malignant teratoma of the thyroid gland]

Two years after a bilateral subtotal thyroidectomy because of nodular goitre a 45-year-old woman noticed a firm nodule on the right side of her neck. Because malignant cells were suspected on cytological examination of a fine-needle biopsy, thyroidectomy was performed which revealed an immature malignant teratoma of the thyroid. A 4 cm local recurrence was noted by computed tomography only three weeks later. Despite chemotherapy (four cycles of vinblastine, cisplatin and bleomycin), radiotherapy to the neck (total dose of 60 Gy) and surgical excision of the infiltrated sternocleidomastoid muscle, bone, liver and lung metastases occurred within 10 months. Four weeks later the patient died of global cardiac failure and tumour cachexia.