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The Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery 2000 June;41(3):503-5

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

FDG-PET detection of primary lung cancer in a patient with an isolated cerebral metastasis

Torre W., Garcia-Velloso M. J. *, Galbis J., Fernandez O. **, Richter J. *

From the Services of General Thoracic Surgery *Nuclear Medicine and **Oncology Clinica Universitaria, University of Navarra Pamplona, Spain

Posi­tron emis­sion tomog­raphy (PET) is a new diag­nostic tech­nique. It is ­used to dif­fer­en­tiate ­benign ­from malig­nant pul­mo­nary nod­ules and to ­detect metas­tasis and ­lymph ­node involve­ment in pri­mary ­lung ­cancer, but ­little has ­been pub­lished ­about its pos­sible ­interest for detec­tion of ­unknown pri­mary ­tumors. We ­report the ­case of a man who under­went resec­tion of a cere­bral ­tumor. A his­to­log­ical diag­nosis of cere­bral metas­tasis ­from aden­o­car­cinoma ­with a prob­able pul­mo­nary ­origin was ­made. Pre­op­er­a­tive ­staging (­including thor­a­coab­dom­inal CT-­scan and ­bone ­scan) did not ­show any path­o­logic ­image, par­tic­u­larly in the ­thorax. A ­whole ­body FDG-PET-­scan was ­then per­formed. An iso­lated (1.5 cm of diam­eter) hyper­met­a­bolic ­focus was dis­cov­ered in the ­left ­upper ­lobe. Bron­chos­copy was ­normal. An ­upper ­left lobec­tomy con­firmed the pres­ence of the pri­mary ­lung aden­o­car­cinoma. In ­this par­tic­ular ­case, FDG-PET ­proved to be a ­very ­useful diag­nostic ­method. New indi­ca­tions are ­being devel­oped for it.