Simultaneous occurrence of typical carcinoid and non-small-cell lung cancer in the same lung lobe: value of nuclear medicine.

The present report demonstrates the usefulness of nuclear medicine in differentiating different pulmonary tumors. A 79-year-old woman presented with a suspicious peripherally located lesion of the right lower lobe in the costophrenic angle. During bronchoscopic evaluation, a centrally located intrabronchial lesion was found, which was positive on a subsequent In-111 octreotide examination. The histologic examination of this central lesion confirmed a typical bronchial carcinoid. The FDG PET examination revealed a high uptake just in the peripherally located lesion, which was then confirmed to be non-small-cell lung cancer. This is the first report of nuclear medicine methods evaluating simultaneous occurrence of a typical bronchial carcinoid and a non-small-cell lung cancer in the same lung lobe.