COVID-19 vaccination simulating lymph node progression in a patient with prostate cancer

Radiology Case Reports

article

Flavio Andresciani¹  Milena Ricci¹  Rosario Francesco Grasso¹  Bruno Beomonte Zobel¹  Carlo Cosimo Quattrocchi¹ 

[1] Unit of Diagnostic Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Fondazione Policlinico Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma

关键词: Choline;    COVID-19;    PET/CT;    Vaccination;    Prostate Cancer;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.radcr.2022.05.072

学科分类：生物化学工程

来源: University of Washington * Department of Radiology

【 摘 要 】

Several cases of cancer patients with 18-fluorodeoxyglucose ( 18 FDG) Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT) evidence of metabolically active axillary lymph nodes after COVID-19 vaccination have been described, creating a diagnostic dilemma and sometimes leading to further unnecessary examinations. A 62-year-old male, diagnosed with prostate cancer , treated with hormone-therapy and radiotherapy of the prostate 2 years before, underwent fluorine-18 choline (F-FCH) PET/CT for restaging purpose, less than 3 weeks after he had received the second dose of the Pfizer BioNTech-BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. This exam showed an increased F-FCH uptake and an enlargement of the left axillary, paratracheal, para-aortic, subcarinal, and hilar bilateral lymph nodes. Fourteen weeks later, the patient underwent a new F-FCH PET-CT scan, displaying an almost complete regularization of the FCH uptake in all the previously involved regions. The patient was not treated after the first PET-CT scan, thus, the aforementioned PET/CT findings represented inflammatory vaccine-related lymph nodes. This case highlights the significance of knowing vaccination history to correctly interpret imaging findings and to avoid false-positive reports.

【 授权许可】

CC BY|CC BY-NC-ND