2017 Volume 31 Issue 5 Pages 638-642
The patient was a 36-year-old who was undergoing follow-up observation after a mediastinal mass was identified during a physical examination at a local clinic 3 years earlier. Over time, the mass showed a tendency to grow, and so the subject consulted our hospital for close examination and treatment. Chest CT revealed a mass shadow of 36 mm in the left middle mediastinum, and FDG-PET/CT revealed FDG uptake with an SUVmax of 4.93 at the same site. On suspicion of a mediastinal tumor such as a thymoma, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery was performed; however, the lesion was a sessile intrapulmonary tumor. Rapid pathological diagnosis revealed low-grade malignancy, and left upper segmentectomy was performed. The postoperative pathology results led to the diagnosis of a benign perivascular epithelioid cell tumor (PEComa). PEComa is a rare condition, for which there are very few reports using PET/CT. We report a case of benign PEComa that showed elevated FDG uptake.