18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography in detecting residual/recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinomas and comparison with magnetic resonance imaging.
BACKGROUND
It is known that 18-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) is effective in the early detection of residual/recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC). To compare FDG-PET with the conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the detection of residual/recurrent NPC, the authors studied 67 follow-up cases of patients with NPC using both FDG-PET and MRI.


METHODS
From February 1997 to February 2001, 67 NPC patients (14 women, 53 men; age range, 16-67 years; mean age, 46.6 +/- 12.5 years) were recruited. Both FDG-PET and MRI of the head and neck area for each patient were performed at least 4 months (duration range, 4-70 months; mean, 14 +/- 13.5 months) after radiotherapy or radiotherapy with concurrent chemotherapy. The final diagnosis was confirmed by biopsy or clinical follow-up for at least 6 months.


RESULTS
The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of FDG-PET images were 100%, 93.4%, 95.5%, 87.5%, and 100%, respectively. In contrast, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV, and NPV of the MRI scans were 61.9%, 43.5%, 49.3%, 33.3%, and 70.0%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of the current study suggest that FDG-PET is much more effective than MRI in detecting residual/recurrent NPC.
Yen
Ruoh-Fang
RF
Department of Nuclear Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Hung
Rey-Long
RL
Pan
Mei-Hsiu
MH
Wang
Yao-Hung
YH
Huang
Kou-Mou
KM
Lui
Louis T
LT
Kao
Chia-Hung
CH
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000175:diagnosis*; D018365:Neoplasm, Residual; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18