FNAC Track Seeding in Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: A Rare Complication

We report the case of a female in her 50's with slowly progressive neck mass for 9 years. For last 2 years the mass has rapidly grown to present size. The size of the mass was 5 × 6 cm and underwent fine needle aspiration cytology six months earlier. Histopathological studies confirmed papillary thyroid carcinoma and cutaneous needle track seeding of the primary tumour. To our knowledge, this is a rare report of seeding of papillary thyroid carcinoma along the track of fine needle aspiration. Some factors involved in needle track seeding are: needle size; number of passes; withdrawing the needle without releasing suction; injecting the tumour at time of biopsy.