Spinal Metastasis Characterized on FDG PET/CT in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Spinal metastases are rare in head and neck cancer. We present a rare case of vocal cord squamous cell cancer that metastasized to the spinal cord and cauda equina. A 63-year-old man presented with acute back pain and bilateral leg weakness 5 months after having a surgical treatment for moderately differentiated vocal cord squamous cell cancer (T2 N0 M0). Restaging F-FDG PET examination demonstrated a soft tissue mass with intense hypermetabolism in the distal spinal cord and a hypermetabolic leptomeningeal metastatic deposit at the L3 level. The findings were confirmed on MRI prior to treatment.