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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · World J Nucl Med 2020; 19(02): 155-158
DOI: 10.4103/wjnm.WJNM_72_19
Case Report

Late recurrence of a papillary thyroid carcinoma 37 years after hemithyroidectomy: Solitary, left cervical lymph node metastasis evident on fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography/computed tomography images revealing nodular uptake

Hiroaki Kunogi
Department of Radiology, Juntendo Nerima Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
,
Yutaka Naoi
Department of Radiology, Juntendo Nerima Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
,
Toshiharu Matsumoto
1   Department of Pathology, Juntendo Nerima Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
,
Yutaka Ozaki
Department of Radiology, Juntendo Nerima Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
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Abstract

In patients with well-differentiated papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC), late recurrence is very rare. It is unusual that 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) shows hypermetabolic lesions in patients with well-differentiated PTC metastases. We demonstrate an exceptional case exhibiting a first relapse 37 years after hemithyroidectomy to treat PTC. Recurrent metastasis of a PTC should be considered as a differential diagnosis even if the elapsed time from the initial treatment is great. A left cervical lymphadenopathy, which exceptionally exhibited a hypermetabolic lesion on PET/CT, should be considered a metastatically well-differentiated PTC.

Keywords

Late recurrence - papillary thyroid carcinoma - positron-emission tomography/computed tomography

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.




Publication History

Received: 18 September 2019

Accepted: 16 November 2019

Article published online:
19 April 2022

© 2020. Sociedade Brasileira de Neurocirurgia. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commecial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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