Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of bronchus in a pediatric patient: ¹⁸F-FDG PET findings

In children, primary neoplasms of the tracheobronchial tree and lungs are rare; most are malignant. Of the primary malignant pulmonary neoplasms arising in childhood, mucoepidermoid carcinoma accounts for approximately 10%. Due to its well-confined local growth within the airway, mucoepidermoid carcinoma commonly produces respiratory symptoms from progressive tracheal or bronchial obstruction. Mucoepidermoid tumor has minimal metastatic potential in children, and local resection alone is the current treatment of choice. Early detection, diagnosis, and surgical resection of mucoepidermoid tumor are especially important in pediatric patients since the bulk of the remaining pulmonary parenchyma can be preserved, thereby decreasing the thoracic deformity and pulmonary functional morbidity. Radiographic and CT imaging findings of bronchial mucoepidermoid carcinoma in children have been described in several case reports. However, to the best of our knowledge, imaging findings of 2-(¹⁸F)-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose positron emission tomography (¹⁸F-FDG PET) of mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the bronchus in pediatric patients have not been well established. We report a mucoepidermoid carcinoma arising from the right upper lobe bronchus in a 15-year-old girl with an emphasis on the ¹⁸F-FDG PET findings.