Simultaneous pulmonary and inferior vena cava tumor thromboembolism secondary to retroperitoneal pleomorphic liposarcoma.

Retroperitoneal pleomorphic liposarcoma (RPLS) is the least common but the most aggressive subtype of liposarcoma. We herein report a case of tumor embolism (TE) to the inferior vena cava (IVC) and pulmonary arteries in a 54 years old woman with RPLS. The case suggests that fusion fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18 F-FDG PET/CT) can accurately detect occult TE. It also illustrates the usefulness of computed tomography (CT) and high 18 F-FDG uptake by PET/CT imaging for diagnosing such findings as filling defect in the veins and beaded pulmonary arteries as TE. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of simultaneous pulmonary and inferior vena cava thromboembolism secondary to RPLS. And occult TE from RPLS has not been reported previously by 18 F-FDG PET/CT.