Rare Case Study of Triple Primary Tumors (Lung, Thyroid & Breast) in a patient and Role of PET-CT in its Follow-Up

Positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) complement each other’s strengths in integrated PET/CT. PET is a highly sensitive modality to depict the whole-body distribution of positron-emitting biomarkers indicating tumour metabolic activity. However, conventional PET imaging is lacking detailed anatomical information to precisely localize pathologic findings. CT imaging can readily provide the required morphological data. Thus, integrated PET/CT represents an efficient tool for wholebody staging and functional assessment within one examination. Due to developments in system technology PET/CT devices are continually gaining spatial resolution and imaging speed. Wholebody imaging from the head to the upper thighs is accomplished in less than 20 min. Spatial resolution approaches 2–4 mm. Most PET/CT studies in oncology are performed with 18F-labelled fluoro-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG). FDG is a glucose analogue that is taken up and trapped within viable cells. An increased glycolytic activity is a characteristic in many types of cancers resulting in avid accumulation of FDG. These tumours excel as “hot spots” in FDGPET/ CT imaging. FDG- PET/CT proved to be of high diagnostic value in staging and restaging of different malignant diseases, such as colorectal cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, head and neck cancer, malignant lymphomas, and many more. The standard whole-body coverage simplifies staging and speeds up decision processes to determine appropriate therapeutic strategies.