APPLICATION OF WHOLE-BODY POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY IN THE IMAGINGOF ESOPHAGEAL CANCER - REPORT OF A CASE

We describe herein a case of esophageal cancer in which both primary a nd metastatic lymph node foci were successfully imaged with whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) scanning. A 75-year-old woman with biopsy-proven squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus underwent whol e-body PET scanning for staging evaluation. The patient was injected w ith 373.7 MBq [F-18]-2-fluoro-2-D-deoxyglucose (FDG), and 60 min later , scanning was performed from the neck to the pelvis. The whole-body i mages showed intense FDG uptake in the primary lesion and multiple foc al areas of increased FDG uptake in the mediastinum and abdomen, which corresponded to the lymph node foci confirmed by computed tomography (CT) scan. To our knowledge, this is the first report of whole-body PE T scanning being applied in the imaging of esophageal cancer.