High 18F-fluorothymidine uptake for invasive thymoma

Clin Nucl Med. 2012 Oct;37(10):991-2. doi: 10.1097/RLU.0b013e31824c77b3.

Abstract

We report an invasive thymoma discovered incidentally by an 18F-FLT (fluorothymidine) PET study on a 48-year-old woman. The patient had equivocal breast lesions in her bilateral breasts. She entered a clinical 18F-FLT PET trial in our hospital to differentiate malignant breast tumors from benign ones. No 18F FLT-avid lesions in her breasts were revealed. But an intense 18F-FLT uptake lesion was noted in her right anterior mediastinum. However, an F-FDG PET scan showed only mild F-FDG uptake in the lesion. Video-assisted thoracic surgery thymectomy was subsequently performed, and the final pathology showed invasive thymoma.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Biological Transport
  • Dideoxynucleosides / metabolism*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm Invasiveness
  • Positron-Emission Tomography
  • Thymoma / diagnostic imaging
  • Thymoma / metabolism*
  • Thymoma / pathology*
  • Thymus Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging
  • Thymus Neoplasms / metabolism*
  • Thymus Neoplasms / pathology*

Substances

  • Dideoxynucleosides
  • alovudine