title: Value of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose and thallium-201 in the detection of pancreatic cancer.
abstract: This study compares the diagnostic value of 18F-FDG PET imaging and 201TI-SPECT imaging in patients with pancreatic cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-five patients with histologically-proven pancreatic cancer were studied. Following PET transmission scanning, 3 mCi of 201TI were administered after patients had fasted overnight. Thallium-201-SPECT images were obtained 15 min later. Immediately after 201TI-SPECT imaging, 4 mCi of FDG were administered and PET images were obtained 60 min later. The PET and SPECT images were compared qualitatively and quantitatively. For quantitative analysis, 10 x 10 mm2 regions of interest (ROIs) were selected in areas of the tumor showing the highest tracer accumulation and in the normal pancreas. The tumor to nontumor activity ratio (T/N ratio) was calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although both techniques delineated focal lesions with an increase in tracer accumulation in 16 patients, PET identified eight additional patients in whom 201TI-SPECT images did not visualize any lesion. Thus, FDG-PET provided significantly higher sensitivity (96%) than 201TI-SPECT (64%). Among the patients showing increased tracer accumulation, the T/N ratio was significantly higher with FDG-PET (3.24 +/- 1.27) than with 201TI-SPECT (1.77 +/- 0.37) (p < 0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that FDG-PET has a larger clinical value for noninvasive detection of pancreatic cancer than 201TI-SPECT. If a PET camera is available, FDG-PET is considered to be the method of choice for the evaluation of patients with suspected pancreatic cancer.
authors: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Kyoto University Faculty of Medicine, Japan.
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Inokuma
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Tamaki
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Torizuka
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Fujita
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Magata
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Yonekura
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Ohshio
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Imamura
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Konishi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003847:Deoxyglucose / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D005260:Female; D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
chemical_list: D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; D013794:Thallium Radioisotopes; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D003847:Deoxyglucose