Open AccessLeptomeningeal carcinomatosis as only pathological finding at FDG-PET/CT in case of tumor marker elevation in breast cancer
Author(s) -
M.L. Domínguez Grande,
J.I. Rayo,
J. Serrano,
J.R. Infante,
Luis Ruiz García,
Carmen Durán,
Felipe Gómez-Caminero López
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
indian journal of nuclear medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.261
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 0972-3919
pISSN - 0974-0244
DOI - 10.4103/0972-3919.125779
Subject(s) - medicine , breast cancer , lumbosacral joint , pathological , meningeal carcinomatosis , radiology , cerebrospinal fluid , pathology , spinal cord , cancer , spinal canal , positron emission tomography , breast carcinoma , surgery , psychiatry
Leptomeningeal carcinomatosis is an infrequent disease and although its treatment is palliative, earlier diagnosis will lead to prolonged survival and improve functional outcome. Whole-body FDG-PET allows the entire spinal cord to be examined noninvasively, so close attention should be paid to the spinal canal, since these lesions can easily be mistaken for physiologic uptake, sometimes there is no clinical suspicion and may occur without concurrent active cancer. We present a female patient with a history of carcinoma of the breast, who presented an elevation of serum tumor marker CA 15-3. An FDG-PET/CT study only revealed multiple abnormal uptake at the vertebral foramen at thoracic and lumbosacral regions suggesting leptomeningeal metastases that were confirmed by MRI and cerebrospinal fluid cytology.