Papillary carcinoma of the thyroid with mucoepidermoid differentiation

A case of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid with mucoepidermoid differentiation is reported. There have been different hypotheses of the histogenesis of this tumor, one of which attributes the origin of the tumor to the ultimobranchial body, mainly because of the presence of neuroendocrine markers. In our case, no neuroendocrine immunohistochemical markers were demonstrated, but a progressive transition between follicular cells and mucinous cells with gradual loss of thyroglobulin immunoreactivity and acquisition of polyclonal carcinoembryonic antigen reactivity was noted. Therefore, we propose that mucoepidermoid carcinoma may be a simple metaplastic transformation of a papillary carcinoma, because the thyroid glandular epithelium, which is of endodermal origin, is capable of differentiating easily into squamous, mucus-secreting, or even polypeptide-secreting epithelium.