title: Is 2-deoxy-2-[(18)F]fluoro-D-glucose PET/CT acquisition from the upper thigh to the vertex of skull useful in oncological patients?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess whether performing routinely 2-deoxy-2-[(18)F]fluoro-D-glucose PET/CT ((18)FDG PET/CT) scan from the upper thigh to the vertex of skull is clinically relevant.
  
  
  METHODS
  3502 (1634 female; mean-age 60+16) consecutive patients undergoing (18)FDG PET/CT were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were divided in 10 groups according to primary malignancy. Chi-square analysis was used to assess differences among proportions. A p value < 0.05 was considered significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  (18)FDG PET/CT was positive in head district in 130/3502 (3,7%) patients. In all patients lesions were unknown before PET/CT examination. PET/CT showed 158 positive brain/head uptake in the 130 patients. The 158 lesions were localized in: brain (43/158; 27%), bone (52/158; 33%), lymph node (1/158; 0,6%), soft tissue (55/158; 35%) and other sites (7/158; 4,4%). According to each group, patients were positive in the head district in 1.0% for Gastrointestinal Cancer (7/690), 3.0 % for Genitourinary Cancer (3/101), 3.7 % for Haemathologic Cancer (59/1590), 2.7 % for Gynaecologic Cancer (3/112), 7.8% for Head-Neck-Thyroid and Parathyroid Cancer (26/331), 3.5% for Breast Cancer (7/200), 2.6% for Lung Cancer (7/271), 3.4% for Melanoma (2/59), 7.4% for Sarcoma (2/27), 11.6% for Unknown Primary Tumour (14/121).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our data show a relatively high incidence of brain/head lesion in patients with Unknown Primary Tumour.
authors: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto di Biostrutture e Bioimmagini, Napoli, Italy.
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Salvatore
authors: Dipartimento ad attività integrate di Diagnostica Morfologica e Funzionale, Radioterapia, Medicina Legale. Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy.
authors: M G
authors: MG
authors: Caprio
authors: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-Istituto di Biostrutture e Bioimmagini, Napoli, Italy.
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Fonti
authors: Fondazione SDN-IRCCS, Napoli, Italy.
authors: D
authors: D
authors: D'Amico
authors: Dipartimento ad attività integrate di Diagnostica Morfologica e Funzionale, Radioterapia, Medicina Legale. Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy.
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Fraioli
authors: Dipartimento ad attività integrate di Diagnostica Morfologica e Funzionale, Radioterapia, Medicina Legale. Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Salvatore
authors: Dipartimento di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy.
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Pace
keywords: PET/CT; brain; head; whole-body acquisition