The Utility of PET/Computed Tomography for Radiation Oncology Planning, Surveillance, and Prognosis Prediction of Gastrointestinal Tumors

High-grade dysplasia of the cystic duct margin: how should this be managed?

High-grade dysplasia (HGD) in the cystic duct is a rare epithelial lesion that may lead to biliary tract malignancy. Due to its association with aggressive multifocal cholangiocarcinoma, it is important to investigate for concurrent malignancy, remove all areas of HGD and monitor for recurrence or metastasis.We present a case of a woman in her 60s with cholecystitis who underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy. On histopathology, the patient was found to have incidental HGD involving the cystic duct margin. After ensuring the absence of concurrent malignancy on cross-sectional imaging, she underwent further resection until the margins were clear of dysplasia. In the absence of clear follow-up guidelines, the patient was closely monitored with outpatient scans for up to 5 years.

Investigating ultra-low-dose total-body [18F]-FDG PET/CT in colorectal cancer: initial experience

PURPOSE

This study was to evaluate the effects of an ultra-low dose of [18F]-FDG on the image quality of total-body PET/CT and its lesion detectability in colorectal cancer (CRC).

METHODS

Sixty-two CRC patients who underwent total-body PET/CT (uEXPLORER, United Imaging Healthcare, Shanghai, China) with an ultra-low dose (0.37 MBq/kg) of [18F]-FDG were enrolled in this retrospective study. The PET images were reconstructed with the entire 15-min dataset first and then split into 13-, 8-, 5-, 4-, 3-, 2-, and 1-min duration groups to simulate fast scanning images. For simplicity, the images reconstructed with the data from 15 to 1 min were referred to as G15, G13, and so on until G1. Subjective image quality was assessed with 5-point Likert scales. The objective image quality parameters included the SUVmax, SUVmean, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the liver and blood pool and the SUVmax and tumor-to-background ratio (TBR) of the lesions. G15 served as the control to evaluate lesion detectability.

RESULTS

A total of 62 patients (43 men, 19 women; age 41-88, mean ± SD 64.0 ± 10.9 years) with 64 CRC primary tumor lesions and 10 low-grade intraepithelial neoplasia (LGIN) lesions were enrolled in this study. The subjective scores were highest for G15 (4.5 ± 0.5) and then decreased from G13 (4.3 ± 0.4) to G8 (3.7 ± 0.5). The liver SNR increased with the extension of acquisition time from G8 (17.2 ± 2.8) to G13 (20.6 ± 3.4) and G15 (21.9 ± 3.4). The liver SNR of G8 was not significantly different from that of G13 (p = 0.15) and was significantly different from that of G15 (p = 0.001). All 64 CRC lesions could be identified in all image groups, even on G1. One of ten LGINs was missed on G1, G2, and G3, and one LGIN was missed on G1, G2, G3, and G4. G15 served as the control, and 100% (48/48) lymph nodes could be found on G13 and G8 compared to 93.8% (45/48) lymph nodes on G5 and G4, 85.4% (41/48) lymph nodes on G3, 81.3% (39/48) lymph nodes on G2, and 77.1% (37/48) lymph nodes on G1. For liver metastases, there were no missed liver lesions on G13 and G8 and 3, 4, 6, 7, and 9 missed liver lesions on G5, G4, G3, G2, and G1, respectively. For other areas of metastasis, including the lung, peritoneum, and ovaries, there were no missed lesions in any group.

CONCLUSIONS

Total-body PET/CT with an ultra-low dose of [18F]-FDG can maintain satisfactory image quality and lesion detectability in CRC.

Treatment outcome after radiochemotherapy in anal cancer patients staged with 18F-FDG-PET-CT

BACKGROUND

Anal cancer (AC) is a malignancy with increasing incidence and commonly treated with radiochemotherapy. Positron-emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) has been shown to improve treatment outcome in various oncological diseases, however, for AC long-term outcome data is sparse. The aim of the present study is therefore to report outcomes in our cohort of PET/CT staged AC patients treated with radiochemotherapy.

METHODS

Patients with AC who were treated with radiochemotherapy in curative intent were included in this retrospective study if a PET/CT scan was performed pre-therapeutically. Information from PET/CT was considered for nodal and primary target volume definition. Radiotherapy dose to the primary tumor was 50-66 Gy and concomitant chemotherapy included 5-fluorouracil and mitomycin-C. The uptake of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) was quantified using 50%-isocontour volumes of interests (VOIs) and measuring the standardized uptake value (SUV) and the metabolic tumor volume (MTV).18F-FDG uptake was correlated with baseline clinical parameters and long-term oncological outcome. Survival estimates were determined according to Kaplan-Meier.

RESULTS

A total of 60 patients were included in this study. Estimates for three-year overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) were 94.5% and 80%. Five patients developed local (n = 2) or locoregional and local (n = 3) failure. Baseline PET/CT related parameters correlated with primary tumor stage, nodal stage and tumor grading. DFS was independent of T-stage, N-stage and baseline 18F-FDG-uptake.

CONCLUSION

In this cohort of PET/CT staged AC patients, excellent outcomes for DFS were seen. PET-based markers of tumor burden correlate with local stage of AC, however, are not of prognostic relevance for disease-free survival.