AUTHOR=Sira Livia , Balogh Zoltán , Vitális Eszter , Kovács Dávid , Győry Ferenc , Molnár Csaba , Bodor Miklos , Nagy Endre V. TITLE=Case Report: Medullary Thyroid Cancer Workup Initiated by Unexpectedly High Procalcitonin Level—Endocrine Training Saves Life in the COVID-19 Unit JOURNAL=Frontiers in Endocrinology VOLUME=12 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/endocrinology/articles/10.3389/fendo.2021.727320 DOI=10.3389/fendo.2021.727320 ISSN=1664-2392 ABSTRACT=Background

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel coronavirus that has caused a worldwide pandemic. The majority of medullary thyroid cancers present as a thyroid nodule. At the time of diagnosis, cervical lymph nodes and distant metastases are frequently detected.

Case Report

Here, we present a case of a 46-year-old man with coronavirus disease (COVID) pneumonia, who had persistently high serum procalcitonin levels despite normal C-reactive protein levels. The attending infectologist happened to be a colleague who spent some time, as part of her internal medicine rotation, in the Endocrine Ward and recalled that medullary thyroid cancer might be the cause. This led to the timely workup and treatment of the medullary cancer.