A 60-year-old man diagnosed with small cell lung cancer, stage IV, presented an excellent
response after first line therapy with chemotherapy (6 cycles of carboplatin + etoposid),
with thoracic computed tomography showing a significant shrinking of the left hilar
mass, pulmonary nodules, and mediastinal adenopathies (Fig. 1A – before; Fig. 1B – after chemotherapy). As he presented with dysphonia, and paralysis of the left
vocal cord (VC) was documented with videolaryngoscopy, left recurrent laryngeal nerve
(RLN) involvement by lung carcinoma was assumed. To evaluate residual neoplastic disease
and consider consolidative thoracic radiotherapy, a positron emission tomography-computed
tomography (PET-CT) scan was performed showing residual metabolic activity in mediastinal
adenopathies, but also asymmetric hypermetabolism in the right VC (Fig. 1C-1D). Laryngoscopy was repeated and no macroscopic changes nor histopathological signs
of neoplastic involvement were found in the right VC.
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References
- Superphysiologic FDG uptake in the non-paralyzed vocal cord. Resolution of a false-positive PET result with combined PET-CT imaging.Clin Positron Imaging. 2000; 3: 207-211
- Recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy in patients with lung cancer: detection with PET-CT image fusion – report of six cases.Radiology. 2002; 224: 153-156
- Spectrum of 18F-FDG PET/CT findings in oncology-related recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy.AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2009; 192: 288-294
Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 08, 2022
Accepted:
May 2,
2022
Received:
April 24,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
