A pilot study of the diagnostic and prognostic values of FLT-PET/CT for pancreatic cancer: comparison with FDG-PET/CT.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to examine the diagnostic and prognostic values of F-fluorothymidine (FLT)-PET/CT for pancreatic cancer by comparing with F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET/CT.

Methods: Fifteen patients with newly diagnosed pancreatic cancer underwent both FLT and FDG-PET/CT scans before treatment. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy in detecting nodal and distant metastases were compared between both scans using McNemar exact or χ test.

Current clinical status of F-FLT PET or PET/CT in digestive and abdominal organ oncology.

Positron emission tomography (PET) or PET/computed tomography (CT) using F-3'-fluoro-3'-deoxythymidine (F-FLT) offers noninvasive assessment of cell proliferation in human cancers in vivo. The present review discusses the current status on clinical applications of F-FLT-PET (or PET/CT) in digestive and abdominal oncology by comparing with F-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG)-PET (or PET/CT). The results of this review show that although F-FLT uptake is lower in most cases of digestive and abdominal malignancies compared with F-FDG uptake, F-FLT-PET can be used to detect primary tumors.

Diagnostic performance of ¹⁸F-fluorothymidine PET/CT for primary colorectal cancer and its lymph node metastasis: comparison with ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT.

Purpose: To examine the diagnostic performance of (18)F-fluorothymidine (FLT) PET/CT in primary and metastatic lymph node colorectal cancer foci in comparison with (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT.

Methods: The study population comprised 28 patients with 30 newly diagnosed colorectal cancers who underwent surgical resection of the primary lesion and regional lymph nodes after both FLT and FDG PET/CT. The associations between SUVmax levels and pathological factors were evaluated using the Mann-Whitney U or Kruskal-Wallis test.

Clinical significance of primary lesion FDG uptake for choice between oesophagectomy and endoscopic submucosal dissection for resectable oesophageal squamous cell carcinomas.

Objectives: To correlate primary oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (18)F-fluoro-deoxyglucose (FDG) uptake with pathological factors and examine its significance regarding choice of therapy.

Methods: We retrospectively examined the factors affecting visible and non-visible FDG uptake in 37 primary lesions in 32 oesophageal SCC patients who underwent PET/CT before oesophagectomy or endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). We divided the lesions into pathological depth invasion ≥sm2 oesophagectomy (n = 18) and ≤sm1 ESD (n = 19) indicated groups and compared the diagnostic accuracy of FDG-PET with that of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) performed for 23 superficial lesions to discriminate between these groups.