Staging the axilla in breast cancer patients with ¹⁸F-FDG PET: how small are the metastases that we can detect with new generation clinical PET systems?

Purpose: Point spread function (PSF) reconstruction improves spatial resolution throughout the entire field of view of a PET system and can detect smaller metastatic deposits than conventional algorithms such as OSEM. We assessed the impact of PSF reconstruction on quantitative values and diagnostic accuracy for axillary staging of breast cancer patients, compared with an OSEM reconstruction, with emphasis on the size of nodal metastases.

Methods: This was a prospective study in a single referral centre in which 50 patients underwent an (18)F-FDG PET examination before axillary lymph node dissection.

One-year longitudinal study of fatigue, cognitive functions, and quality of life after adjuvant radiotherapy for breast cancer.

Purpose: Most patients with localized breast cancer (LBC) who take adjuvant chemotherapy (CT) complain of fatigue and a decrease in quality of life during or after radiotherapy (RT). The aim of this longitudinal study was to compare the impact of RT alone with that occurring after previous CT on quality of life.

Methods And Materials: Fatigue (the main endpoint) and cognitive impairment were assessed in 161 CT-RT and 141 RT patients during RT and 1 year later.

Early 2'-deoxy-2'-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose PET metabolic response after corticosteroid therapy to differentiate cancer from sarcoidosis and sarcoid-like lesions.

Purpose: We aimed at investigating whether early metabolic response to corticosteroid therapy may be used as a diagnostic tool to discriminate between cancer and sarcoidosis, a well-known cause of false-positive 2-deoxy-2-[F-18]fluoro-D: -glucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) findings in oncology.

Procedure: Two cancer patients with biopsy-proven sarcoidosis or sarcoid-like reaction had multiple thoracic FDG foci. After infectious disease had been excluded, patients received oral corticosteroids for 16 and 14 days, respectively, and underwent posttherapeutic FDG-PET examination.

Influence of CA 15-3 blood level and doubling time on diagnostic performances of 18F-FDG PET in breast cancer patients with occult recurrence.

Aim: To evaluate the influence of CA 15-3 blood level and doubling time on diagnostic performances of 18F-FDG PET in breast cancer patients with occult recurrence.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-five 18F-FDG PET examinations in 32 patients with CA 15-3 blood level above the normal range, and negative conventional imaging within 3 months before PET examination were included in this retrospective study. PET examinations were reviewed blindly by two experienced nuclear medicine physicians who were unaware of any clinical, biological or radiological information.

Prognostic value of early 18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography and gallium-67 scintigraphy in aggressive lymphoma: a prospective comparative study.

The prognostic value of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) and gallium-67 scan (GS) performed early after chemotherapy was assessed in 40 patients with newly diagnosed aggressive lymphoma. FDG-PET and GS were performed before and after three cycles of CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone) or two cycles of ACVBP (doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vindesine, bleomycin, prednisone), with or without rituximab. Thirty-five patients had diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), two had mantle-cell lymphoma and three had T-cell lymphoma.