Clinical usefulness of fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose PET in a case with multiple bone metastases of carcinoid tumor after ten years.

We report a peculiar case in an 80-year-old man with multiple bone metastases due to the recurrence of thymic carcinoid tumor after surgical resection and radiation therapy ten years earlier. He was admitted to our hospital with a complaint of lumbago. Fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) PET was useful for recognition of multiple bone metastases due to the recurrence of thymic carcinoid tumor, while (201)Tl-whole body scintigraphy and by (99)mTc-methylene diphosphonate ((99)mTc-MDP) bone scintigraphy did not reveal the metastases. Finally, we performed a CT-guided bone biopsy from lumbar vertebra and could obtain the diagnosis of metastases of carcinoid tumor histologically. As evident in this case, it is important to consider the recurrence of carcinoid tumor even if a long time has passed after the surgical resection and radiation therapy; also FDG-PET may be a useful diagnostic imaging modality to detect metastases from thymic carcinoid tumor to other organs.