Diagnostic efficacy of [11C]choline positron emission tomography/computed tomography compared with conventional computed tomography in lymph node staging of patients with bladder cancer prior to radical cystectomy.

Background: Current imaging techniques are of limited value for lymph node (LN) staging in bladder cancer (BCa) patients scheduled for radical cystectomy (RC).

Objective: Evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of [11C]choline positron emission tomography in combination with computed tomography (PET/CT) for LN staging of patients with BCa scheduled for RC and compare that efficacy with the diagnostic efficacy of CT and the gold standard of histopathologic evaluation.

Design, Setting, And Participants: From June 2004 to May 2007, 44 patients with localized BCa were staged with [11C]choline PET with low-dose CT for attenuation correction and simultaneous intravenous and rectal contrast-enhanced diagnostic CT before RC and pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND).