A CASE OF LOCAL RECURRENCE OF PARATHYROID CARCINOMA 11 YEARS AFTER THE INITIAL SURGICAL OPERATION

A case of local recurrence of parathyroid carcinoma 11 years after the initial surgical operation is reported, together with some bibliographical comments. A 70-year-old man was admited to the hospital because of a mass in the neck. At the age of 59, he underwent an extirpation of a parathyroid carcinoma with combined resection of the right lobe of the thyroid gland and modified radical neck dissection. On admission, a well movable mass was 3 cm in diameter. The level of calcium in serum was 13.4 mg/dl, and the level of C-PTH in serum was 1.8 ng/ml. CT scan and MRI of the neck demonstrated a sharply demarcated mass beneath the skin. Aspiration biopsy revealed the presence of tumor cells (class V). The tumor was extirpated, and was diagnosed as recurrence of the initial parathyroid carcinoma in the soft tissue of the anterior neck. The prognosis of the disease is relatively poor, the 5-year survival rate being 50-67%. This is a rare case with late local recurrence of parathyroid carcinoma.