[Clinical value of positron emission tomography in the detection and staging of recurrent colorectal cancer].
BACKGROUND
Positron emission tomography (PET) has been shown useful for the staging of patients with various carcinomas.


METHODS
We have applied this technique to 54 cases of colorectal carcinoma and compared it to conventional imaging techniques.


RESULTS
PET had moderately higher sensitivity and specificity than conventional techniques to detect individual lesion sites (75% vs 70.8% and 63% vs 21% respectively). It detected the same number of patients with recurrences (35/39) but overestimated disease less frequently (5 cases vs 12). PET favorably influenced therapeutic management in 17 patients, indicating different or additional surgery in 9 while avoiding surgery with curative intent or unnecessary surgery in 8. In 5 cases, erroneous information provided by PET could be corrected by conventional imaging techniques.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that PET appears to provide complementary information useful for staging patients with colorectal carcinomas. It can significantly modify patients management. These data should be confirmed by a prospective study.
Hustinx
R
R
Service de Médecine Nucléaire, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Liège, Belgique.
Paulus
P
P
Daenen
F
F
Detroz
B
B
Honoré
P
P
Jacquet
N
N
Rigo
P
P
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
Intérêt clinique de la tomographie à émission de positons dans la détection et le bilan d'extension des récidives des cancers colorectaux.