title: Comparison of ( 18 ) F-FLT PET and ( 18 ) F-FDG PET for detection of cervical lymph node metastases in head and neck cancers.
abstract: CONCLUSIONS
  Despite low uptake of tracer, 3'-deoxy-3'-(18)F-fluorothymidine (FLT) PET could detect cervical lymph node metastases as well as 2-deoxy-2-(18)F-fluoro-d-glucose (FDG) PET.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The diagnostic efficacy of FLT PET was compared with that of FDG PET regarding nodal staging of head and neck squamous cell cancers.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-three patients were examined with FLT PET and FDG PET. PET images were evaluated qualitatively for regions of focally increased metabolism and maximum standardized uptake values (SUV) were calculated for semiquantitative analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean (± SD) FLT SUV in visualized metastatic lymph nodes was 4.8 ± 2.9 as compared with 6.9 ± 4.9 for FDG SUV (p < 0.001). Significant correlations were found between the area of metastatic lymph nodes and both FLT SUV (r = 0.8; p < 0.0001) and FDG SUV (r = 0.84; p < 0.0001). The false-positive (over-staged) and false-negative (under-staged) rates for lymph node staging by FLT PET were 4% (1/23) and 17% (4/23), respectively. Those for FDG PET were 9% (2/23) and 13% (3/23). All metastatic lymph nodes measuring more than 9 mm in short-axis diameter were correctly detected by FLT PET. However, both FLT and FDG PET had low sensitivity for detecting the lymph node metastases ≤ 9 mm in short-axis diameter and tumor deposits < 5 mm.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan. hiro@kms.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hoshikawa
authors.forename: Takehito
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kishino
authors.forename: Terushige
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nishiyama
authors.forename: Yuka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Ryuhei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Inamoto
authors.forename: Kosuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Akiyama
authors.forename: Nozomu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mori
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D015224:Dideoxynucleosides; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010039:Otorhinolaryngologic Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D015224:Dideoxynucleosides; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; C002854:alovudine