WARTHIN-LIKE TUMOR OF THE THYROID - A RARE VARIANT OF PAPILLARY THYROID CANCER: REPORT OF TWO CASES

Background. Warthin-like tumor of the thyroid (WALTT) is a very rare variant of papillary thyroid cancer. We want to draw attention to this rare condition by reporting two cases. Patient reports. Patient 1 was a 24 year-old woman presented with 14x12 mm solid nodule on the left lobe of the thyroid gland. Fine needle aspiration biopsy of the nodule was reported as suspicious for papillary thyroid carcinoma. Patient 2 was a 40 year-old woman who had multinodular thyroid gland with a 31x26 mm major nodule on the left lobe. On fine neddle aspiration, cytologic findings were consistent with papillary thyroid carcinoma. Both underwent total thyroidectomy and histological examination of the cases revealed Warthin-like tumor of the thyroid. Summary and conclusion. We report two patients with WALTT. This rare variant of papillary thyroid cancinoma has four main histologic criteria: papillary architecture, oxyphilic cytoplasmic changes, papillary nuclear features and dense lymphoid infiltrate. WALTT can be distinguished from other aggressive variants with these distinct histological features. Since variants show different clinical behaviour, classification of these might be helpful to predict patient prognosis.