Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, Ahmanson Biological Imaging Center, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-6942 USA.
Abstract
PURPOSE: 2-Deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-Glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) stages patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD) and Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) with higher accuracy than computed tomography (CT). We sought to determine whether integrated (hardware) fused PET/CT imaging results in further improvements in staging accuracy.
PROCEDURES: Seventy-three patients (age 51 +/- 17 years, 37 female, 36 male) with HD (n = 20) or NHL (n = 53) undergoing staging were studied with an integrated PET/CT system. Image findings were verified by clinical follow up, additional imaging and when available, histology.
RESULTS: Thirty-four of 73 patients (46.5%) had evidence of disease and 39 were disease free as confirmed by clinical evaluation and follow-up for 41 +/- 22 weeks (n = 73), including biopsy (n = 26), and other imaging modalities (n = 52) when available. A discordant image interpretation between PET and PET/CT occurred in seven patients (10%). PET/CT correctly upstaged two and downstaged five patients. Overall staging was accurate in 93% with PET/CT and 84% with PET (P = 0.03).
CONCLUSION: Lymphoma is staged with higher accuracy using PET/CT than PET alone.