Harish Nagaraj, Consultant and HOD Nuclear Medicine, MIC In-Charge at KUTRRH, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Tumor Sink Effect – When Biology Enhances Imaging.
A striking example of the tumor sink effect on FDG PET/CT. This patient with synchronous malignancies (rectal and prostate cancer) demonstrates extensive metastatic disease involving the lungs, liver, both adrenal glands and skeleton, resulting in a significant “sink” for the administered FDG tracer.
Because a large proportion of the tracer is avidly taken up by the widespread systemic tumor burden, background physiologic uptake in other organs is relatively reduced. Interestingly, this phenomenon allowed unusually clear visualization of a brain metastasis on FDG PET, which can sometimes be challenging due to normally high cerebral glucose metabolism.
This case highlights how tumor biology and tracer distribution can interact in unexpected ways, occasionally revealing lesions that might otherwise be masked.
Another reminder that careful whole-body review of PET images always pays off.”
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