Metastatic Thyroid Cancer Occurring as an Unknown Primary Lesion: The Role of F-18 FDG Positron Emission Tomography

Abstract

Thyroid cancer can appear as metastatic disease of an unknown primary origin, and fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-18 FDG) positron emission tomographic (PET) studies are helpful in the workup evaluation of these patients. The authors describe two patients who had metastatic disease from an unknown primary lesion. F-18 FDG PET studies played an important role in localizing the primary malignant site in the thyroid gland. The utility of F-18 FDG imaging in decreasing the number of procedures, cost, and inconvenience to patients is shown clearly in both cases.