Positron emission tomography/computer tomography in guidance of extrahepatic hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis management.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common primary cancers in the world. Surgery is the gold standard for treatment of patients with HCC. Recurrence and metastasis are the major obstacles to further improve the prognosis of HCC. Most recurrences are intrahepatic. However, 30% of the recurrences are extrahepatic. The role of resection in intrahepatic recurrences is widely accepted. The role of resection in extrahepatic HCC recurrence and metastasis is not well established. 18F fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computer tomography (PET/CT) is useful in detecting distant metastasis from a variety of malignancies and shows superior accuracy to conventional imaging modalities in identification of intrahepatic and extrahepatic metastasis. We present one patient with one new isolated omental lymph node metastasis, who had a history of huge HCC resected six years ago. The metastatic focus was identified with 18 F-FDG PET/CT and resected. The follow-up revealed good prognosis with a long-term survival potential after resection of the omental lymphatic metastasis.
Sun
Long
L
Minnan PET Center, The First Hospital of Xiamen, Fujian Medical University, Xiamen 316003, Fujian Province, China.
Guan
Yong-Song
YS
Pan
Wei-Ming
WM
Chen
Gui-Bing
GB
Luo
Zuo-Ming
ZM
Wu
Hua
H
D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011379:Prognosis; D011859:Radiography; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18