A Rare Case of Thyroid Cartilage Metastases Detected on 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography

Indian J Nucl Med. 2023 Apr-Jun;38(2):172-173. doi: 10.4103/ijnm.ijnm_189_22. Epub 2023 Jun 8.

Abstract

The thyroid cartilage metastatic involvement is an extremely rare entity. It can be asymptomatic at the earlier stage and can become symptomatic later on. Involvement of thyroid cartilage is frequent in melanoma and renal and rarely reported in an advanced stage of carcinoma prostate, breast, and lung. These cases were usually reported on positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) as can often easily be missed on computed tomography scan alone. We present a case report of metastatic involvement of thyroid cartilage in squamous cell carcinoma of buccal mucosa detected on the whole-body 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT.

Keywords: Carcinoma buccal mucosa; cartilage metastasis; fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography; laryngeal metastasis; thyroid cartilage.