Tzu Chi Medical Journal
Volume 21, Issue 1 , Pages 73-76, March 2009

Granular Cell Tumor of the Thyroid

  • Shu-Mei Chang

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anatomic Pathology, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan
  • ,
  • Chih-En Tseng

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anatomic Pathology, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan
    • School of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan
  • ,
  • Chang-Kuo Wei

      Affiliations

    • Department of General Surgery, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan
  • ,
  • Tzu-Cheng Su

      Affiliations

    • Department of Anatomic Pathology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Department of Anatomic Pathology, Changhua Christian Hospital, 135, Nansiao Street, Changhua City, Changhua County, Taiwan

Received 11 June 2008; received in revised form 4 July 2008; accepted 14 July 2008.

Abstract 

Granular cell tumors (GCT) can occur in a wide variety of organs, but are rare in the thyroid. To the best of our knowledge, only four cases of thyroid GCT have been reported in the literature. We report a GCT of the thyroid in a girl aged 12 years who presented with a painless neck mass. Thyroid function tests and the serum calcium level were within normal limits. A thyroid ultrasound demonstrated a round hypoechoic mass in the thyroid isthmus. Histologically, the tumor cells demonstrated abundant granular eosinophilic cytoplasm. The tumor cells were positive for S-100 protein and vimentin, and were negative for thyroglobulin, calcitonin, thyroid transcription factor-1, chromogranin A, synaptophysin, and cytokeratin. The patient had no recurrence and remained well at the 10-month postoperative follow-up visit. We reviewed the literature for reports of thyroid GCTs and compared them with reports of extrathyroid GCTs.

Keywords:  Granular cell tumor , Schwann cell , Thyroid

No full text is available. To read the body of this article, please view the PDF online.

 

PII: S1016-3190(09)60012-4

doi:10.1016/S1016-3190(09)60012-4

Tzu Chi Medical Journal
Volume 21, Issue 1 , Pages 73-76, March 2009