Lymph Node Findings on PET: Cancer or COVID Vaccine?
— Post-jab radiotracer uptake “could prompt unnecessary biopsies and treatments”
by Mike Bassett, Staff Writer, MedPage Today May 26, 2021
Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of cancer patients after they received COVID-19 vaccinations showed abnormal radiotracer uptake in lymph nodes, researchers reported.
The retrospective study demonstrated that about 10% of patients, who had no visible axillary nodal uptake on PET imaging performed pre-vaccination, exhibited positive axillary lymph nodes after COVID-19 vaccination, according to Jason Young, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues.
“The decision to proceed with PET imaging after recent COVID-19 vaccination should take into account the evolving knowledge of the pitfalls that such vaccination can cause on PET, as well as patient-specific factors such as the cancer type, cancer stage, and the urgency of the clinical decisions to be made based on the PET finding,” the authors wrote in the American Journal of Roentgenology.
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