Key result
18F-FDOPA PET/CT revealed 2 FDOPA-avid left inguinal lymph nodes, subsequently confirmed by histology as melanoma metastases, highlighting a potential pitfall in neuroendocrine tumor assessment.
Case Report (n=1)
18F-FDOPA PET/CT can incidentally detect metastatic melanoma, which may act as a pitfall when assessing for neuroendocrine tumors.
Melanoma metastases may mimic NET uptake on 18F-FDOPA PET/CT; case reports leave open the pitfall's prevalence and need for histologic confirmation.
A 47-year-old woman with a history of surgically treated abdominal paraganglioma and left thigh melanoma underwent an F-FDOPA PET/CT for suspected locoregional recurrence of paraganglioma. F-FDOPA PET/CT disconfirmed this recurrence but revealed 2 FDOPA-avid left inguinal lymph nodes, confirmed on a subsequent F-FDG PET/CT. Excision and pathology characterized these lymph nodes as melanoma metastases. F-FDOPA PET/CT is a widely used and valuable tool in the assessment of paraganglioma, both for staging and recurrence detection. Uptake of FDOPA has only rarely been documented in metastatic melanoma that could be a pitfall for detecting neuroendocrine tumors.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Zhang-Yin et al. (2020) conducted a case report in Suspected locoregional recurrence of paraganglioma / incidental metastatic melanoma (n=1). 18F-FDOPA PET/CT was evaluated on Detection of incidental metastatic melanoma. 18F-FDOPA PET/CT revealed 2 FDOPA-avid left inguinal lymph nodes, subsequently confirmed by histology as melanoma metastases, highlighting a potential pitfall in neuroendocrine tumor assessment.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: