title: The role of integrated 18F-FDG PET-CT as a staging tool for limited-stage small cell lung cancer: a retrospective study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study was to evaluate whether positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) could be used as part of the staging work-up in patients with limited-stage disease (LD) small cell lung cancer (SCLC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Between January 2002 and December 2007, a total of 73 patients with presumed LD on CT, who underwent a PET-CT scan, were included in this study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Conventional work-up revealed distant metastases in 12 patients. Out of 61 patients diagnosed as LD SCLC, PET-CT found unexpected distant metastases in 15 (24.6%) patients (LD/extensive-stage disease (ED)) of whom 13 (21.3%) were upstaged as a consequence. In 10 (76.9%) of the 13 upstaged patients, treatment was changed. The median survival of LD/LD SCLC patients who underwent concurrent chemoradiotherapy and chemotherapy only was 21.9 and 17.5 months, respectively. The median survival of LD/ED and ED/ED SCLC patients who received chemotherapy only was 17.4 and 14.1 months, respectively. The median survival of LD/LD SCLC patients who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy was superior to that of LD/ ED and ED/ED patients who received chemotherapy only (p = 0.037 and 0.004, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The addition of PET-CT seems to allow more accurate staging and may thus protect a percentage of SCLC patients from potentially futile and toxic radiotherapy.
authors: Departments of Oncology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
authors: Byeong S
authors: BS
authors: Sohn
authors: Dae H
authors: DH
authors: Lee
authors: Eun K
authors: EK
authors: Kim
authors: Dok H
authors: DH
authors: Yoon
authors: Hye O
authors: HO
authors: Kim
authors: Jin-Sook
authors: JS
authors: Ryu
authors: Sang-We
authors: SW
authors: Kim
authors: Cheolwon
authors: C
authors: Suh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055752:Small Cell Lung Carcinoma / Q000473:pathology*; D018511:Systems Integration; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18