Our results indicate that (11)C-choline PET/CT is a useful diagnostic tool in patients affected by prostate cancer and a relapsed PSA level. The highest accuracy for all patients is obtained with a PSA cutoff level of 1.26 ng/ml, above which the imaging study is performed (0.81 ng/ml for patients treated with surgery or surgery plus radiotherapy and 2.0 ng/ml for patients treated with radiotherapy alone).

Purpose To assess the presence and pattern of incidental interstitial lung alterations suspicious of COVID-19 on fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) ([18F]FDG PET/CT) in asymptomatic oncological patients during the period of active COVID-19 in a country with high prevalence of the virus. Methods This is a multi-center retrospective observational study involving 59 Italian centers. We retrospectively reviewed the prevalence of interstitial pneumonia detected during the COVID period (between March 16 and 27, 2020) and compared to a pre-COVID period (January–February 2020) and a control time (in 2019). The diagnosis of interstitial pneumonia was done considering lung alterations of CT of PET. Results Overall, [18F]FDG PET/CT was performed on 4008 patients in the COVID period, 19,267 in the pre-COVID period, and 5513 in the control period. The rate of interstitial pneumonia suspicious for COVID-19 was significantly higher during the COVID period (7.1%) compared with that found in the pre-COVID (5.35%) and control periods (5.15%) (p < 0.001). Instead, no significant difference among pre-COVID and control periods was present. The prevalence of interstitial pneumonia detected at PET/CT was directly associated with geographic virus diffusion, with the higher rate in Northern Italy. Among 284 interstitial pneumonia detected during COVID period, 169 (59%) were FDG-avid (average SUVmax of 4.1). Conclusions A significant increase of interstitial pneumonia incidentally detected with [18F]FDG PET/CT has been demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. A majority of interstitial pneumonia were FDG-avid. Our results underlined the importance of paying attention to incidental CT findings of pneumonia detected at PET/CT, and these reports might help to recognize early COVID-19 cases guiding the subsequent management.

Loss of APC is an initial, rate-limiting event in inherited and sporadic colorectal tumorigenesis. Rare germline APC mutations have been identified in patients with multiple colorectal adenomas. Recently, the E1317Q APC variant has been associated with a predisposition to the development of multiple colorectal adenomas. In this study, the prevalence of the E1317Q variant was examined in 182 patients with single or multiple colorectal adenomas, and in 235 controls. In all, E1317Q was identified in two of 182 patients with adenomatous polyps (1.1%) and in two of 235 controls (0.8%) (p = 0.59). The risk of harboring adenoma(s) among subjects bearing the E1317Q variant was 1.29 (95% CI 0.09-18.0). No difference in the prevalence of E1317Q between cases with single (2.0%) or multiple colorectal adenomas (0.7%) and controls (0.8%) was found. None of the subjects with a family history of colorectal cancer carried the E1317Q variant. In conclusion, our results confirm that only a very small fraction of colorectal adenomas may be associated with the presence of E1317Q.

Gated SPECT with perfusion tracers can reliably differentiate pseudo-paradoxical from true paradoxical septal motion in patients with previous CABG, and it may be the method of choice for evaluating left ventricular performance in this patient population.