ABSTRACT
Signet ring gallbladder carcinoma is a rare aggressive variant of mucinous adenocarcinoma with poor prognosis. Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) with Fluor18 deoxyglucose (F18-FDG) is a useful tool in the staging of gallbladder cancer. We report a 68 years old man with a surgically resected acute cholecystitis, whose biopsy was positive for signet ring cell gallbladder carcinoma. During surgery, locoregional lymph nodes, liver or peritoneal involvement were not detected. A PET/CT was performed for staging, finding multiple hypermetabolic lytic bone lesions. Percutaneous biopsy of a pelvis bone lesion, confirmed a metastasis of the tumor. In this case, the staging with PET/CT allowed the diagnosis of unsuspected bone metastases and was a useful tool for deciding the best site of biopsy for histologic confirmation.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Aged , Bone Neoplasms/secondary , Bone Neoplasms/diagnostic imaging , Carcinoma, Signet Ring Cell/secondary , Carcinoma, Signet Ring Cell/diagnostic imaging , Gallbladder Neoplasms/pathology , Gallbladder Neoplasms/diagnostic imaging , Fatal Outcome , Radiopharmaceuticals , Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 , Multimodal Imaging , Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography , Neoplasm StagingABSTRACT
Two Korean women (41 and 23-years of age) presented with painful breast enlargement and redness. The involved breast was confirmed as metastatic signet ring cell carcinoma. Although metastatic signet ring cell carcinoma of the breast shows similar clinical symptoms to inflammatory breast cancer, the difference between the two is that this malignancy showed no microcalcifications or mass on radiographic findings (mammograms and US). Therefore, after the confirmation of signet ring cell carcinoma of the breast has been made, metastatic signet ring cell carcinoma should be considered if there are no microcalcifications or masses evident on radiographic findings.