Initial evaluation of inflammatory breast cancer with fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography
A 32-year-old female presented with diffuse right breast enlargement, redness, and peau d’orange form of breast. 18F FDG PET/CT whole-body imaging was performed after intravenously injection of 420 MBq (11,3 mCi) 18F FDG. After 1 hour of waiting period in a silent room the patient was imaged using an integrated PET/CT camera, which consisted of a six-slice CT gantry, integrated with an LSO based fullring PET scanner (Siemens Biograph 6, IL, Chicago, USA). Maximum-intensity-projection (MIP) of the PET image showed intense hypermetabolic activity involving the right breast with a maximal standardized uptake value (SUV) of 22.6 and multiple mediastinum, bilateral subclaviculary-axillary lymph nodes, bilateral liver lobes, and multiple skeletal metastatic lesions. The axial PET image showed intense FDG uptake in the right breast []. After the right breast skin biopsy, pathology results showed IBC [].