Intramedullary spinal cord metastases and whole body ¹⁸F-FDG PET-CT: case report

Intramedullary spinal cord metastases (ISCM) are neurological complications of cancer which can be devastating to quality of life of a patient. Early diagnosis and initiation of appropriate treatment can prevent paralysis, bowel and bladder incontinence and prevent drastic changes to the quality of life of a cancer patient. However, signs and symptoms occur late in disease and diagnosis before signs may remain a challenge. With the widespread use of positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) scans for cancer staging, one should be cognizant to not overlook the presence of hypermetabolic FDG avid metastatic lesion along the spinal cord, especially when there is multiple FDG avid metastatic disease present.