Depressed cerebellar glucose metabolism in supratentorial tumors.

Fifty-four patients with supratentorial tumor and one with brainstem tumor were examined with positron emission tomography (PET) using [18F]fluoro-deoxyglucose (FDG). Twenty-one of these cases had satisfactory studies of the cerebellum. Of these, 12 showed significant metabolic asymmetry between the two cerebellar hemispheres, with the rate of glucose utilization in the hemisphere contralateral to the cerebral tumor being 8-34% lower than on the ipsilateral side, as compared with a right-left asymmetry of only--1.

Positron emission tomographic study of suppression of gray-matter glucose utilization by brain tumors.

Positron emission tomography (PET) scanning with [18F]-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) was used to study 59 patients with astrocytomas and three patients with other cerebral mass lesions. Suppression of gray-matter glucose utilization ranging from 8% to 64% (mean, 30%) was seen in 92% of cases. Three categories of suppression were apparent, with the greatest degrees of suppression occurring in edematous gray matter adjacent to mass lesions.

Prediction of lymphatic metastases by Gleason histologic grading in prostatic cancer.

We reviewed retrospectively 90 patients with prostatic cancer to assess Gleason grading as a predictor of pelvic nodal metastases and to compare our results to previous studies. Positive nodes occurred in 0 and 20 per cent of patients with Gleason sums of 2 to 4 and 5 to 6, respectively, which is consistent with previous data. However, nodes were involved in only 44, 60 and 44 per cent of patients with a Gleason sum of 7 to 9, respectively, and nodes were negative in the sole patient with a Gleason sum of 10.