Significance of incidental focal fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in colon/rectum, thyroid, and prostate: With a brief literature review

Figure 1 A case of malignant incidental focal prostate fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose uptake. A: Focal uptake (black arrow) below the radioactivity of bladder on the maximum intensity projection image of a 76-year-old man diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer; B: Axial image of fused positron emission tomography/computed tomography showing hypermetabolism (maximum standardized uptake value 8.1) in the left prostate region and histopathologically confirmed as an adenocarcinoma of the prostate gland.

Figure 2 Rates of malignant, premalignant (in colon and rectum), and benign incidental focal hypermetabolic fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose uptake in the colon/rectum, thyroid, and prostate. “ALL” indicates benign (39.4%) and malignant/premalignant (60.6%) lesions.

Figure 3 Representative receiver operating characteristic curves. A: Standardized uptake value (SUV)max of colon/rectum; B: SUVpeak of colon/rectum; C: SUVmax of thyroid; D: SUVmax of prostate. Area under the curves are 0.752, 0.729, 0.676, and 0.706, respectively. ROC: Receiver operating characteristic.