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.

Article Outline

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.

 

Back to Article Outline

References 

  1. Desai DP , Maddalozzo J , Holinger LD . Granular cell tumor of the trachea . Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg . 1999;120:595–598
  2. Mahoney CP , Patterson SD , Ryan J . Granular cell tumor of the thyroid gland in a girl receiving high-dose estrogen therapy . Pediatr Pathol Lab Med . 1995;15:791–795
  3. Paproski SM , Owen DA . Granular cell tumor of the thyroid . Arch Pathol Lab Med . 2001;125:544–546
  4. Milias S , Hytiroglou P , Kourtis D , Papadimitriou CS . Granular cell tumour of the thyroid gland . Histopathology . 2004;44:190–191
  5. Baloch ZW , Martin S , LiVolsi VA . Granular cell tumor of the thyroid: a case report . Int J Surg Pathol . 2005;13:291–294
  6. Cavaliere A , Sidoni A , Ferri I , Falini B . Granular cell tumor: an immunohistochemical study . Tumori . 1994;80:224–228
  7. Ordóñez NG . Granular cell tumor: a review and update . Adv Anat Pathol . 1999;6:186–203
  8. Mittal KR , True LD . Origin of granules in granular cell tumor. Intracellular myelin formation with autodigestion . Arch Pathol Lab Med . 1988;112:302–303
  9. Vance SF , Hudson RP . Granular cell myoblastoma: clinicopathologic study of forty-two patients . Am J Clin Pathol . 1969;52:208–211
  10. Lack EE , Worsham GF , Callihan MD , et al.   Granular cell tumor: a clinicopathologic study of 110 patients . J Surg Oncol . 1980;13:301–316
  11. Fanburg-Smith JC , Meis-Kindblom JM , Fante R , Kindblom LG . Malignant granular cell tumor of soft tissue: diagnostic criteria and clinicopathologic correlation . Am J Surg Pathol . 1998;22:779–794

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

Article Tools