American Burkitt's lymphoma of the head and neck: evaluation with serial FDG-PET.

F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) is known to be a noninvasive, safe, and useful diagnostic tool for staging, restaging, and follow up of neoplastic disease. This report is concerned with a 32-year-old man with a history of rare American Burkitt's lymphoma of the head and neck. The patient was evaluated with FDG-PET for staging and post-therapy follow up. The initial PET showed intense accumulation of FDG in the right side of the face indicating malignancy. A post-therapy follow-up PET showed a slight decrease in the FDG accumulation in the tumor, suggesting partial response to chemotherapy. This case shows that FDG-PET continues to be an invaluable diagnostic tool in the evaluation of lymphomas.