Potential Role of PET/CT in Evaluation of Thyroid Carcinoma Subtypes

Abstract

Thyroid malignancies are a heterogeneous group of malignancies with various subtypes and many classes. Thyroid carcinoma is the most common endocrine malignancy. Patients usually complain of a neck swelling that is revealed to be thyroid nodule by examination. The nodule is usually evaluated using various diagnostic procedures as neck ultrasonography with fine needle aspiration cytology in suspicious cases. 18FDG PET/CT is a relatively new imaging modality combining functional and anatomical imaging. It is a promising modality for use in different subtypes of thyroid malignancy. 18FDG PET/CT has a wide spectrum of proposed uses in thyroid malignancy, some of them are comprehensively studied while others are still under investigation. We observed a new potential use of 18FDG PET/CT in assessing the response of chemotherapy. However, owing to our limited study with small sample size, this use still needs more investigation. Moreover, further evaluation by studies with proper study design is required, particularly in the less common subtypes, to provide a more comprehensive guideline for the use of 18FDG PET/CT in various subtypes of thyroid cancer, whether in diagnosis, follow up, outcome prediction, or detection of recurrence