title: Evaluation of lymph node metastases in squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus with positron emission tomography.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Previous studies suggest positron emission tomography (PET) may improve staging accuracy of esophageal cancer compared with conventional methods, especially in detecting occult distant metastases. We evaluated the accuracy of PET in the detection of lymph node metastasis prospectively with pathologic findings.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-three patients with squamous cell carcinoma underwent whole-body PET scan and chest computed tomography (CT). The findings of PET and chest CT of 50 patients who underwent curative esophagectomy with radical lymph node dissection were compared with the pathologic findings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 53 primary esophageal tumors, PET detected 51 (96.2%) and CT detected 49 (92.5%) tumors correctly. Nodal metastases were present in 108 of 436 dissected lymph node groups. PET detected 56 metastatic node groups (51.9% sensitivity, 94.2% specificity, 83.7% accuracy), compared with CT, which detected 16 (14.8% sensitivity, 96.7% specificity, 76.6% accuracy; sensitivity: p < 0.005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PET was more sensitive than CT in the detection of nodal metastases and may improve staging of squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: B T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Y M
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Shim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000556:secondary*; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods; D011446:Prospective Studies; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18