title: Differentiating benign and malignant pulmonary lesions with FDG-PET.
abstract: The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the efficacy of positron emission tomography (PET) with 18F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) to differentiate benign from malignant pulmonary lesions. Fifty-five patients, suspected of having primary pulmonary neoplasm based on chest radiographic findings, underwent FDG-PET scanning. Pathological diagnoses were obtained in 41 patients with a total of 43 pulmonary lesions. The other 14 patients (14 lesions) were followed-up clinically for at least four months. The standard uptake value (SUV) was determined in each patient. The SUV of the 15 benign and 40 malignant pulmonary lesions were 1.60+/-0.42 and 6.14+/-2.67, respectively. If SUV was > 2.50, the pulmonary lesion was considered as a malignant pulmonary lesion. FDG-PET could correctly detect 34 true-positive and 15 true-negative pulmonary lesions. However, 6 false-positive and one-false negative pulmonary lesions were misdiagnosed by FDG-PET. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of FDG-PET to differentiate between benign and malignant pulmonary lesions were 94%, 71% and 86%, respectively. FDG-PET can accurately detect malignant pulmonary lesions with a high sensitivity. However, false-positive FDG-PET findings caused by some inflammatory processes may decrease its specificity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Therapy and Oncology, China Medical College Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: S N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: F J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Kwan
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Kao
authors.forename: Y Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
chemical_list: D005462:Fluorine Radioisotopes; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18