title: 18F-FDG PET/CT in paediatric lymphoma: comparison with conventional imaging.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In children with Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the ability of (18)F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose PET/CT and conventional imaging (CI) to detect malignant lesions and predict poor lesion response to therapy was assessed and compared.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective review of findings reported on PET/CT and CI was performed using a lesion-based analysis of 16 lymph node and 8 extra-nodal regions. Lesions were defined by histopathological findings or follow-up > 6 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study included 209 PET/CT scans with a valid CI comparator. A total of 5,014 regions (3,342 lymph node, 1,672 extra-nodal) were analysed. PET/CT performed significantly better than CI in the detection of malignant lesions with sensitivity and specificity of 95.9 and 99.7% compared to 70.1 and 99.0%, respectively. For predicting poor lesion response to therapy, PET/CT had fewer false-positive lesions than CI. The specificity for predicting poor lesion response to treatment for PET/CT was 99.2% compared to 96.9% for CI. PET/CT was the correct modality in 86% of lesions with discordant findings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PET/CT is more accurate than CI in detecting malignant lesions in childhood lymphoma and in predicting poor lesion response to treatment. In lesions with discordant findings, PET/CT results are more likely to be correct.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, NSW, Australia. kevinL5@chw.edu.au
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: London
authors.forename: Siobhan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cross
authors.forename: Ella
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Onikul
authors.forename: Luciano
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dalla-Pozza
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Howman-Giles
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18