Follicular thyroid carcinoma presenting as solitary liver metastasis: a case report

BACKGROUND Distant metastasis from differentiated thyroid carcinoma at presentation is rare and isolated liver metastasis on presentation is almost unknown. We report a case of primary follicular carcinoma of the thyroid with isolated liver metastasis at presentation. CASE PRESENTATION A 65-year-old man of Kashmiri origin presented to our tertiary referral center with obstructive jaundice; he was evaluated with magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography and positron emission tomography-computed tomography. Positron emission tomography-computed tomography documented a lesion in his liver in addition to a metabolically active thyroid nodule. Fine needle aspiration cytology of the liver lesion supplemented with immunohistochemical analysis using thyroid transcription factor 1 confirmed the lesion as being an isolated metastasis from the primary thyroid lesion (which on fine needle aspiration cytology showed follicular architecture). CONCLUSIONS To best of our knowledge, this is first reported case of primary differentiated thyroid carcinoma presenting with isolated liver metastasis manifesting as obstructive jaundice.