A 18F-FDG PET/CT screening study of a hepatocellular carcinoma patient with diffuse 18F-FDG uptake into the portal vein and its intrahepatic branches

Abstract

Major vascular invasion is one of the worst prognostic factors of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Fludeoxyglucose F 18 (¹⁸ F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) method is succesfully being used in HCC patients for the detection of particularly long-distance metastasis. Major vascular invasion is shown by radiological methods [particularly dynamic CT and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)]. A male patient aged 60 years was diagnosed with HCC, according to biopsy after the detection of a mass in the liver. His medical examinations that were performed for the evaluation in terms of liver transplantation were dynamic CT and dynamic MRI; invasion in the intrahepatic branches of the portal vein and in main portal vein was also detected. PET/CT was performed to investigate the distant metastases. Moreover, diffuse ¹⁸ F-FDG uptake in the intrahepatic branches of the portal vein and in the main portal vein was observed.