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Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2003;129:488.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Diagnosis: Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) arising in a preexisting tall cell variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma is rare, representing fewer than 5% of thyroid neoplasms,¹ but it accounts for nearly half of all cases of mortality associated with thyroid cancer. It is most commonly found in the elderly, with a mean age at presentation of 70 years, and shows a female predominance (female-male ratio, 1.5:1.0).² The tumor usually presents with rapid growth and extensive local invasion of extrathyroidal structures. Approximately 50% of patients with ATC have a history of nodular goiter or differentiated thyroid carcinoma. Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma is regarded as a uniformly fatal malignant neoplasm, and the postdiagnosis survival time is usually less than 6 months.³

The 3 main histologic variants of ATC are giant cell, spindle cell, and squamoid, but mixed patterns are frequently observed. The giant cell variant typically exhibits severe nuclear pleomorphism³ and characteristically has multinucleated tumor giant cells. The spindle cell variant is sarcomalike in appearance, with a . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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