Current status of PET/CT in the diagnosis and follow up of lymphomas

Abstract

Lymphomas are a heterogeneous group of malignancies that have a distinct biological behavior according to the subtype and degree of differentiation. Adequate staging, which has a direct impact on prognosis, is essential to properly plan therapy. Structural cross-sectional imaging, such as computed tomography, has been the standard imaging tool to stage and monitor patients with lymphoma. However, molecular imaging such as positron emission tomography has shown complementary diagnostic and prognostic values. This review discusses the current value of positron emission tomography imaging using 2-[fluorine-18]fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose in staging, restaging, monitoring and detecting relapse in Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

MRD response in relapsed/refractory FL after obinutuzumab plus bendamustine or bendamustine alone in the GADOLIN trial

“…In patients with relapsed/refractory FL, a CT-based response assessment of PR may be based on the finding of residual LN enlargement. However, this enlargement may not reflect residual disease, but rather residual fibrotic tissue [26] or slowly responding disease, providing a possible explanation for why a number of patients in the current study were assessed as having a PR, despite being MRDnegative at EOI (N = 60).…”

Development and internal validation of a risk scoring system for gastrointestinal events requiring surgery in gastrointestinal lymphoma patients

“…Regarding macroscopic findings, in patients with gastric lymphoma, the presence of large ulcerative lesions is a risk factor for gastric perforation, but these studies were case series and lacked any statistical analysis . The FDG‐PET SUVmax value could be predictive of GI events because it reflects the activity of lymphoma, but the association has not been investigated. Previous studies did not involve multivariate analyses, and so the utility of these candidate predictors of GI events is unclear.…”

Metachronous presentation of small-cell rectal carcinoma on an 18F-FDG PET/CT follow-up for follicular lymphoma

“…A 60-year-old woman with a 5-year history of follicular lymphoma in remission was referred for 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging for a suspected relapse [3] , [4] , [5] . The 18F-FDG PET/CT ( Fig.…”