F-18 FDG positron emission tomography findings in primary pancreatic lymphoma

The usefulness of F-18 2'-deoxy-2-fluoro-D-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) has been well established for lymphoma staging. Although involvement of the pancreas occurs in more than one third of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, primary lymphoma of the pancreas accounts for less than 1% of extranodal non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Because patients with primary pancreatic lymphoma require a different therapeutic approach and have a better prognosis than those with pancreatic adenocarcinoma, the accurate diagnosis is important. However, conventional imaging modalities cannot differentiate between adenocarcinoma and other less common neoplasms such as lymphoma. We report a 67-year-old man who had a primary pancreatic lymphoma in which FDG PET imaging revealed round, intense FDG uptake in the center of the midabdomen.