Usefulness of Pet/Ct in Preoperative Staging of Nsclc Patients

Santhosh S, Sunil HV, Kashyap KR, Bhattacharya A and Mittal BR

Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET, PGIMER, India

^*Correspondance to: Santhosh S 

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Abstract:

Aim: To evaluate the usefulness of integrated positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT) in preoperative staging of patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).
Methods: Twenty nine histopathologically proven patients of NSCLC having CT based staging were subjected to PET/CT imaging. PET/CT was done 60 min after the intravenous injection of 18F-FDG. Whole body imaging (base of skull to mid thigh region) was performed in all patients.
Results: Based on staging, disease was considered as nonresectable if staging ≥IIIB. Of the 29 patients studied, CT showed resectable disease in 21 & nonresectable in 8 patients; PET/ CT showed resectable disease in 15 & nonresectable in 14 patients. By PET/CT findings, 7 patients were changed from resectable to non-resectable group and one patient from non-resectable to resectable group. Hence, in 27.5% (8/29) of patients, change in management was achieved. PET/CT upstaged 12 patients (41.3%), downstaged3 patients (10.3%) & confirmed staging in 14 patients (48.3%) compared to CT. Upstaging was done by the finding of nodal status in 6 and metastases in 6 patients. PET/CT downtaged 3 patients. (One suspected liver metastasis was found to be benign; mediastinal nodal involvement was ruled out in two patients). PET/CT was found to be more useful in the evaluation of nodal status and metastasis involvement which are the major determinants of respectability in patients with NSCLC.
Conclusion: PET/CT showed excellent utility in the initial staging of patients with NSCLC. PET/CT changed the management, by deferring futile surgery, in approximately 24% of the patients. PET/ CT should be considered mandatory in all patients considered to have resectable NSCLC.

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Cite the Article:

Santhosh S, Sunil HV, Kashyap KR, Bhattacharya A, Mittal BR. Usefulness of Pet/Ct in Preoperative Staging of Nsclc Patients. Clin Oncol. 2016; 1: 1083.