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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · World J Nucl Med 2019; 18(01): 58-60
DOI: 10.4103/wjnm.WJNM_66_17
Case Report

Ovarian cancer unmasked by technetium-99m bone scintigraphy and single-photon emission computed tomography-computed tomography

Jolien Verschueren
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Antwerp University Hospital, 2650 Edegem, Belgium
,
Ivan Huyghe
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Antwerp University Hospital, 2650 Edegem, Belgium
,
Tim Van den Wyngaert
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Antwerp University Hospital, 2650 Edegem, Belgium
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Abstract

We report a case of a 30-year-old female patient with a painless palpable nodule in the chest wall, evaluated for osseous involvement by technetium-99m (Tc-99m) bone scintigraphy. A whole-body scan revealed numerous sites of increased tracer accumulation throughout the thorax, abdomen, and pelvis. Subsequent single-photon emission computed tomography-computed tomography (SPECT-CT) of the abdomen and pelvis showed no abnormal uptake in the bone; however, significant nonosseous tracer accumulation in calcified soft tissue metastases was noted. Pathology confirmed a high-grade ovarian papillary serous adenocarcinoma. Extraosseous uptake of bone-seeking agents in the body is often incidental findings and can be explained by various benign and malignant conditions with soft tissue calcification. In our case report, this unusual finding on bone scintigraphy was highly suggestive for malignancy, initially not considered during the clinical evaluation of the patient. It also illustrates the usefulness of additional hybrid SPECT-CT to precisely localize extraosseous uptake of Tc-99m methylene diphoshonate.

Keywords

Bone scintigraphy - ovarian cancer - single-photon emission computed tomography-computed tomography - soft tissue metastases - technetium-99m methylene diphoshonate

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.




Publication History

Received: 00 00 2019

Accepted: 00 00 2019

Article published online:
22 April 2022

© 2019. 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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