Abstract:

Paediatric thyroid cancer is uncommon and classical papillary carcinoma is the most represented histological type. Variant high cell papillary carcinoma (VHCPC) is an extremely rare entity in the paediatric age group, aggressive and a marker of poor prognosis, as well as poor survival. The presence and percentage of a minority high cell contingent should be mentioned in the histopathological report. We report the case of a 9-year-old female patient with no previous history of cancer who presented with a 5 cm long left cervical nodule. Macroscopic examination showed the presence of several poorly bounded, fleshy, homogeneous beige coloured, non-encapsulated nodules. On microscopic examination, the tumour showed a papillary, focally solid architecture. The tumour cells were 2-3 times taller than they were wide, with abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm, sharp borders, and oval nuclei, with incisions and numerous intranuclear pseudo inclusions. The tumour protruded beyond the thyroid capsule and came into contact with the surgical borders, with the presence of vascular emboli. Our work aims to highlight the anatomopathological and diagnostic particularities of this sub-variant of papillary carcinoma.

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