Radioguided lymph node biopsy of a chemoresistant lymph node detected on interim FDG PET-CT in Hodgkin lymphoma

Abstract

A 32-year-old male patient was diagnosed with nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma. Staging FDG PET-CT detected a large right axillary lymph node conglomerate and splenic manifestation. Interim PET-CT following two cycles of ABVD chemotherapy revealed good metabolic response with the exception of a single axillary lymph node. A second "interim" PET-CT after two further cycles showed a similar result. A biopsy of the metabolically active non-palpable lymph node was performed using radioguided occult lesion localization (ROLL) with ultrasound guidance. The lymph node was successfully removed by minimally invasive surgery. Histological evaluation of the lymph node revealed a T cell-rich diffuse large B cell lymphoma. Based on this finding, a more aggressive treatment regimen followed by high dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell rescue was adopted. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a lymphoma case in which the ROLL method was used in the radioguided biopsy of a chemoresistant lymph node detected by interim FDG PET-CT.