Clinical value of FDG-PET in the follow up of post-operative patients with endometrial cancer.
OBJECTIVE
The clinical usefulness of FDG-PET in the follow up of post-operative patients with endometrial cancer was retrospectively evaluated.


METHODS
Twenty-one post-operative patients with endometrial cancer received 30 FDG-PET examinations to evaluate recurrence or response to treatment. The findings of FDG-PET were compared with their serum levels of tumor markers, CT and/or MRI findings, and the final outcome. Results of FDG-PET were also correlated with the clinical course of each patient.


RESULTS
In detecting recurrent lesions and evaluating treatment responses, FDG-PET, with the help in anatomic information by CT/MRI, showed better diagnostic ability (sensitivity 100.0%, specificity 88.2%, accuracy 93.3%) compared with combined conventional imaging (sensitivity 84.6%, specificity 85.7%, accuracy 85.0%) and tumor markers (sensitivity 100.0%, specificity 70.6%, accuracy 83.3%). FDG-PET had no false-negative results, suggesting the possibility of its use as the first-line examination in a patient's follow-up. FDG-PET could detect unknown lesions in 4 cases, and, as reported for other malignancies, FDG-PET affected the patient management in one-third of the cases. Furthermore, the results of FDG-PET correlated well with the clinical outcome of the patients, with patients with negative PET results tending to show disease-free courses.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that, despite the limited number of patients studied, FDG-PET was accurate in detecting recurrence and evaluating therapeutic response, and could afford important information in the management of post-operative patients with endometrial cancer. FDG-PET also appeared to have a possibility to predict the outcome of each patient.
Saga
Tsuneo
T
Department of Nuclear Medicine and Diagnostic Imaging, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Japan. saga@kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Higashi
Tatsuya
T
Ishimori
Takayoshi
T
Mamede
Marcelo
M
Nakamoto
Yuji
Y
Mukai
Takahiro
T
Fujita
Toru
T
Togashi
Kaori
K
Yura
Shigeo
S
Higuchi
Toshihiro
T
Kita
Masato
M
Fujii
Shingo
S
Konishi
Junji
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011182:Postoperative Care / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18