BACKGROUND:

Cancer is one of the first causes of both mortality and morbidity in the world. Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine neoplasm. Although most TC patients have a good prognosis, 10 to 15% present recurrent disease and up to 5% show distant metastases. Brain metastases are unusual and are associated with a worse prognosis.

OBJECTIVE:

To describe the demographic and radiological characteristics, as well as clinical prognosis of patients with thyroid cancer who required neurological consultation.

MATERIAL AND METHOD:

A prospective observational study in which patients with thyroid cancer who required neurological consultation, attended in a tertiary referral cancer center, was done from January 2010 to January 2016. Serum levels of thyroglobulin, TSH and anti-thyroglobulin antibodies were studied, as suggested previously.

RESULTS:

We followed around 400 patients with TC and we found seven patients with brain metastases by thyroid cancer and compared them with records found in literature. Male gender, older age and high levels of thyroglobulin were associated with higher incidence of distant metastases of thyroid cancer.

CONCLUSIONS:

Brain metastases of thyroid cancer are little frequent complications with adverse prognosis. Thyroglobulin is a very useful tumoral marker for the following of patients with thyroid cancer, because it is high in patients with systemic activity and very high in patients with brain metastases.

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