title: (18)F-FDG PET and conventional imaging for assessment of Hodgkin's disease and non Hodgkin's lymphoma. An analysis of 193 patient studies.
abstract: The AIM of this study was to assess the diagnostic value of FDG-PET and conventional imaging (CI) in a large series of patient with Hodgkin's disease (HD) or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) at three time points during their course of disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  169 consecutive lymphoma patients (69 HD; 100 NHL) were included. 193 FDG-PET studies were performed for staging at baseline in 42 cases, for post-therapeutic monitoring in 103, and for diagnosis of recurrence in 48 cases. Performance indices of sensitivity, specificity, positive (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy of metabolic FDG-PET and morphological CI were calculated. Differences in staging and diagnosis of residual or recurrent lymphoma were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  FDG-PET changed staging in 36% of cases for staging at baseline, in 52% of cases for monitoring response to treatment, and in 29% for diagnosis of recurrence. FDG-PET staging results were confirmed in 80% for staging at baseline, in 74% for monitoring response to treatment, and in 50% for diagnosis of recurrence. FDGPET and CI differed significantly at monitoring response to treatment for sensitivity (0.91 versus 0.69; p < 0.02), specificity (0.90 versus 0.38; p < 0.00001), PPV (0.77 versus 0.42; p < 0.001), and accuracy (0.83 versus 0.55; p < 0.02).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  FDG-PET should be considered as the diagnostic modality of choice for post-therapeutic assessment of lymphoma patients and may be a reliable alternative to CI for staging at baseline and diagnosis of recurrence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Strasse 25, 53105 Bonn, Germany. jan.bucerius@ukb.uni-bonn.de
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bucerius
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Herkel
authors.forename: A Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Joe
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Altehoefer
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Finke
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Moser
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Reinhardt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18