title: Bacillus Calmette-Guerin injections for melanoma immunotherapy: potential for a false-positive PET/CT.
abstract: An 82-year-old woman presented for routine follow-up PET/CT after undergoing local melanoma resection in the left lower leg, isolated limb infusion chemotherapy, and immunomodulation therapy with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine. Symmetric, bilateral, moderately intense FDG avid axillary and inguinal cutaneous nodules were observed that were new from the prior PET-CT. The patient had developed skin lesions at the BCG injection sites several months before the study. The case raises awareness to PET/CT appearance of local inflammatory response to BCG injection, which could be mistaken by an unaware reader for recurrent melanoma.
authors: From the Section of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Radiology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Penn State University, Hershey, PA.
authors: Steven M
authors: SM
authors: Sogge
authors: Joseph S
authors: JS
authors: Fotos
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Tulchinsky
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001500:BCG Vaccine / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D008545:Melanoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012878:Skin Neoplasms; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D000096142:Cutaneous Malignant Melanoma
chemical_list: D001500:BCG Vaccine; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18