Thyroid cancer causing obstruction of the great veins in the neck

To report our experience and review the literature of thyroid cancer obstructing the great veins in the neck, highlighting clinical aspects and response to treatment.

Clinical data were collected from the thyroid cancer register and from follow-up clinic visits of patients referred to the Thyroid Unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital. A Medline literature search was conducted between 1980 and 2007.

Of 1448 patients with thyroid cancer on our cancer register and treated in our unit over the last 60 years, we identified five patients, four women and one man, aged 43 - 81 years with a median follow up of 28 (24-78) months in whom tumour had occluded the great veins in the neck. All patients underwent total thyroidectomy and all subsequently received ablative 131I with the exception of patient 3 whose post-operative isotope scan shown no significant 131I uptake. External beam radiotherapy to the neck and upper mediastinum was used for residual disease control in the 5 patients. The median survival was 28 months and the disease-free survival was 24 months. One patient remains asymptomatic but with disease 53 months after initial presentation. Survival in this small series is significantly better than that previously reported for this condition.

A multimodality therapeutic approach comprising surgery, radioiodine and external beam radiotherapy may give the best results for patients in whom thyroid cancer is occluding the great veins.