Late, solitary small bowel metastasis of anaplastic thyroid cancer: a case report

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is a rare type of thyroid cancer that is characterized by its rapid onset and progression. It tends to metastasize to various organs, including the lungs, brain, bones and, less commonly, the small bowel. This case report describes a 74-year-old woman who had small bowel metastasis leading to obstruction three years after diagnosis and local resection of ATC, followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. The patient presented at the emergency department with abdominal pain and vomiting. A CT-scan of the abdomen showed signs of intestinal perforation, combined with diffuse dilatation of the ileal small bowel, for which a segmental enterectomy was performed. Histological findings of the resected small bowel diagnosed the tumor as a jejunal metastasis of an ATC. The morphology of this lesion was compared to that of this patient's ATC. We present a rare case of small bowel metastasis from ATC which has previously been described in just a few case reports in the medical literature. Therefore, this case report contributes to the limited knowledge available on this condition.