Post-therapy surveillance of patients with uterine cancers: value of integrated FDG PET/CT in the detection of recurrence.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to prospectively determine the diagnostic accuracy of PET/CT in the detection of recurrence in patients with treated uterine cancers.


METHODS
Twenty-five women, ranging in age from 37 to 79 years (mean 58.9 years), who underwent primary surgical treatment for either a cervical or an endometrial cancer met the inclusion criterion of the study, which was suspicion of recurrence based on results of routine follow-up procedures. PET/CT was performed after administration of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG); two readers interpreted the images in consensus. Histopathological findings or correlation with results of subsequent clinical and imaging follow-up examinations served as the reference standard. Diagnostic accuracy of PET/CT was reported in terms of the proportion of correctly classified patients and lesion sites.


RESULTS
Tumour recurrence was found at histopathological analysis or follow-up examinations after PET/CT in 14 (56%) of the 25 patients. Patient-based sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of PET/CT for detection of tumour recurrence were 92.9%, 100.0%, 100.0%, 91.7% and 96.0%, respectively. Lesion site-based sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of PET/CT were 94.7%, 99.5%, 94.7%, 99.5% and 99.0%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
This preliminary study shows that PET/CT may be an accurate method for the evaluation of recurrence in patients who have been treated for uterine cancers and are undergoing follow-up.
Sironi
Sandro
S
School of Medicine, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
Picchio
Maria
M
Landoni
Claudio
C
Galimberti
Stefania
S
Signorelli
Mauro
M
Bettinardi
Valentino
V
Perego
Patrizia
P
Mangioni
Costantino
C
Messa
Cristina
C
Fazio
Ferruccio
F
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013382:Subtraction Technique; D018511:Systems Integration; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18