Boanova LG, Altmayer S, Watte G, Raupp AA, Francisco MZ, De Oliveira GS, Hochhegger B, Andrade RGF. Detection of Liver Lesions in Colorectal Cancer Patients Using
18F-FDG PET/CT Dual-Time-Point Scan Imaging.
Cancers (Basel) 2023;
15:5403. [PMID:
38001662 PMCID:
PMC10670707 DOI:
10.3390/cancers15225403]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/25/2023] [Revised: 10/24/2023] [Accepted: 11/03/2023] [Indexed: 11/26/2023] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of dual-time-point fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission computed tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) compared to conventional early imaging for detecting colorectal liver metastases (CRLM) in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients.
METHODS
One hundred twenty-four consecutive CRC patients underwent dual-time-point imaging scans on a retrospective basis. Histopathological confirmation and/or clinical follow-up were accepted as the gold standard. Standard uptake values (SUV), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), retention index (RI), tumor-to-normal liver ratio (TNR), and lesion sizes were measured for early and delayed PET scans. The diagnostic performance of early and delayed images was calculated on a per-patient basis and compared using McNemar's test.
RESULTS
Among the 124 patients, 57 (46%) had CRLM, 6 (4.8%) had benign lesions, and 61 (49.2%) had no concerning lesions detected. Smaller CRLM lesions (<5 cm3) showed significantly higher uptake in the delayed scans relative to early imaging (p < 0.001). The SUV and TNR increased significantly in delayed imaging of all metastatic lesions (p < 0.001). The retention index of all CRLM was high (40.8%), especially for small lesions (54.8%). A total of 177 lesions in delayed images and 124 in standard early images were identified. In a per-patient analysis, delayed imaging had significantly higher sensitivity (100% vs. 87.7%) and specificity (91.0% vs. 94.0%) compared to early imaging (p-value = 0.04).
CONCLUSIONS
The detection of liver lesions using dual-time-point PET/CT scan improves the sensitivity and specificity for the detection of colorectal liver metastasis.
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