Diagnostic imaging of medullary thyroid cancer

Medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) is an uncommon malignancy with a high tendency to metastasize both to lymph nodes and distant localizations. In recurrent disease the most important prognostic factors are the early diagnosis, localization of the recurrent lesions and adequate patient selection for further treatment. An important role in monitoring of patients with medullary thyroid cancer plays periodical measurement of calcitonin concentration, which allows to detect the recurrence early. There is no single universal diagnostic method to localize all medullary thyroid cancer recurrence lesions, however, the development of positron emission tomography (PET) methods observed in recent years led to an important progress in this field. Conventional diagnostic methods (ultasonography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance) currently play the basic role in the diagnosis of the medullary thyroid carcinoma. In this article we also described nuclear medicine imaging, both convencional scintigraphy and positron emission tomography methods, used in diagnosing of this neoplasm. Particular attention was paid to the use of each method depending on the clinical situation and the suspected location of tumor foci.