Small Cell Lung Cancer Staging: Prospective Comparison of Conventional Staging Tests, FDG PET/CT, Whole-Body MRI, and Coregistered FDG PET/MRI.

Whole-body MRI and FDG PET/MRI have shown encouraging results for staging of thoracic malignancy but are poorly studied for staging of small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The purpose of our study was to compare the performance of conventional staging tests, FDG PET/CT, whole-body MRI, and FDG PET/MRI for staging of SCLC. This prospective study included 98 patients (64 men, 34 women; median age, 74 years) with SCLC who underwent conventional staging tests (brain MRI; neck, chest, and abdominopelvic CT; and bone scintigraphy), FDG PET/CT, and whole-body MRI within 2 weeks before treatment; coregistered FDG PET/MRI was generated.