Preoperatively diagnosed case with co-existence of papillary thyroid carcinoma and cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis

Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the most frequent histological subtype of thyroid cancer. The lymph node metastasis is found in a high proportion of patients with PTC at the time of surgery. In contrast, tuberculous lymphadenitis remains a common cause of cervical lymphadenopathy in Asian countries.

We present a 60-year-old woman with coexistence of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and cervical tuberculous lymphadenitis and to show the usefulness of fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) and quantiferon testing to distinguish a lymph node metastasis of PTC from tuberculous lymphadenitis.

FNAB and quantiferon testing are useful tools to check if enlargement of cervical lymph node is due to tuberculous infection, and a surgical plan should be carefully determined to avoid unnecessary surgical complications and the spread of tuberculous infection.

The coexistence of cervical tuberculosis should be considered in the etiology of an enlarged lymph node for patients with PTC.