Incidence of Thyroid Carcinoma in Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography‐Positive Thyroid Incidentalomas

Abstract

Our experience shows a 14% malignancy rate for the dominant (imaged) nodule and a total malignancy rate of 32% when the incidental micro carcinomas are included. Both of these rates are significantly lower than results published previously.

Incidence and Significance of Incidental Focal Thyroid Uptake on ¹⁸F-FDG PET Study in a Large Patient Cohort: Retrospective Single-Centre Experience in the United Kingdom

“…The significance of incidental focal thyroid uptake on 18 F-FDG PET study was first described in 2001 [10]. Many research studies are currently available on this topic, with different results on focal uptake of tracer on 18 F-FDG PET [3,4,5,6,8,9,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38]; however, a large UK series has yet to be reported. We report one of the largest studies on the evaluation of incidental focal 18 F-FDG uptake in the thyroid.…”

Is integrated 18F-FDG PET/MRI superior to 18F-FDG PET/CT in the differentiation of incidental tracer uptake in the head and neck area?

“…Still, its presence can be problematic in some cases, particularly if the quality of morphologic images is impaired by motion In the thyroid, focal tracer uptake is problematic. Although Choi et al (28) found increased focal tracer uptake to be a strong predictor for malignancy, more recent studies showed that also benign nodules show a strong tracer uptake and that the frequency of malignant nodules is lower than initially reported (29). Still, focal asymmetrical 18 F-FDG uptake in the thyroid demands further investigation (25,29,30).…”

“…Although Choi et al (28) found increased focal tracer uptake to be a strong predictor for malignancy, more recent studies showed that also benign nodules show a strong tracer uptake and that the frequency of malignant nodules is lower than initially reported (29). Still, focal asymmetrical 18 F-FDG uptake in the thyroid demands further investigation (25,29,30). Unfortunately, MRI is not superior to CT in the differentiation between benign and malignant thyroid lesions (31).…”

Re: Thyroid incidentalomas in FDG-PET/CT: prevalence and clinical impact

“…al [1] article with great interest as we have pursued this topic in our center over the years [2][3][4]. We practice at a busy international multiple myeloma referral center so we have a busy nuclear medicine/ PET practice with abundant PET data.…”

“…Diffuse thyroid uptake on PET/CT is not a concern for malignancy and is indicative of thyroid disease which may ultimately require medical management [2].…”