A retrospective analysis of the impact of 18F-FDG PET scans on clinical management of 133 breast cancer patients.
OBJECTIVE
While it is well-known that there is 18F-FDG uptake in breast tumors, clinical impact of (18)F-FDG PET in managing breast cancer patients is not well-studied.


METHODS
One hundred and thirty-three consecutive breast cancer patients from May 1996 to June 2000 were studied. All patients were treated and being followed. Reasons of referral included equivocal conventional studies, staging/re-staging, clinical suspicion of recurrence, and elevated serum tumor markers. Clinical status at 6 months postPET is used as the gold standard in lesions of worsening versus stable or improving.


RESULTS
PET was 69% sensitive and 80% specific in predicting clinical stage at 6 months. This 69% of the patients who got worse at 6 months was PET positive and 80% of the patients who were stable or improving at 6 months were PET negative. There was a significant association between PET results and clinical outcome, after adjusting for stage of disease (P=0.04), or for the treatment patients received (P<0.01). Negative PET results changed therapy as often as positive ones did. PET influenced treatment decisions in 74% of the patients referred for study.


CONCLUSIONS
PET holds promise as a sensitive and specific modality in following treated breast cancer patients. PET results contain information on 6 month outcome that is independent of stage or past treatment and influence patient management.
Santiago
J F Y
JF
PET Center, St. Luke's Medical Center, Quezon City, Philippines.
Gonen
M
M
Yeung
H
H
Macapinlac
H
H
Larson
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011379:Prognosis; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18