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Turkiye Klinikleri Journal of Medical Sciences, vol.33, no.2, pp.540-546, 2013 (SCI-Expanded)
Cribriform morular variant papillary carcinoma is a rare papillary carcinoma subtype, which is associated with familial adenomatous polyposis is well known. In addition to APC/beta-catenin mutation, presence of RET/PTC translocation in the molecular pathway allows classification of these tumors as the papillary carcinoma subtypes. A fine needle aspiration biopsy was performed to the right tyroid nodule of a 23-year-old woman due to a clinical suspicion of malignancy. In addition to papillary and follicular structures and groups composed of one layer sheets, follicular epithelial cells with cribriform structures were also seen on cytologic smears. Intranuclear pseudoinclussions were observed in some of the cells. Microscopical examination of the thyroidectomy specimen revealed that the tumor predominantly displayed cribriform pattern in association with trabecular pattern, papillary structures, rosette-like formations and solid areas in some fields. Immunohistochemically, tumor cells were positive for beta-catenin, TTF-1, galectin-3, and cytokeratin-19. Final diagnosis was made as "papillary thyroid carcinoma, cribriform morular variant" with the current findigns. This variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma should be kept in mind in the differential diagnosis of primary thyroid carcinomas owing to its distinctive morphologic patterns which can be challenging histologically and cytologically. © 2013 by Türkiye Klinikleri.