Renal metastasis of thyroid cancer is extremely rare. We report the case of a 62-year-old woman with Hürthle cell thyroid cancer (HCTC) with lungs, bones, and bilateral kidneys metastases. The renal metastatic lesions were clearly demonstrated by 131I whole body scan (WBS) with SPECT/CT. However, they exhibited false-negative results in 18F-FDG PET/CT, kidney ultrasonography, and contrast-enhanced CT scan. The findings imply that tumors have low glucose metabolism and are able to accumulate radioiodine, which is not commonly found in the relatively aggressive nature of HCTC. The patient received two sessions of 200 mCi 131I therapy within 6 months duration. There was complete treatment response as evaluated by the second post-therapeutic 131I SPECT/CT and serum thyroglobulin. To our knowledge, renal metastasis from HCTC with positive 131I but negative 18F-FDG uptake has not been reported in the literature. This case suggests that 131I SPECT/CT is useful for lesion localization and prediction of 131I therapy response.
Keywords: Discordant uptake; F-18 FDG PET/CT; Hürthle cell thyroid cancer; I-131 whole-body scan; Renal metastasis.