FDG-PET Imaging in Patients With Pulmonary Carcinoid Tumor

Abstract

Preoperative PET imaging result is frequently positive in carcinoid tumors, and the biological behavior correlates well with SUV; however, size is not as strong of a predictor of malignancy. Size of 3.5 cm or greater and SUV of 6 or greater have a predictive value of greater than 95% for malignant histology.

Multicenter Comparison of 18F-FDG and 68Ga-DOTA-Peptide PET/CT for Pulmonary Carcinoid

“…Jindal et al 16 studied 20 patients with PCs (13 typical, 7 atypical) with 18 F-FDG and 68 Ga DOTATOC, showing different uptake patterns of the 2 tracers that can substantially aid in the prediction of the histopathologic subtype. Our results are in line with those recently reported by Moore et al, 23 who found significantly higher 18 F-FDG SUV max values in more aggressive PC, that is, the atypical ones. When analyzing the results obtained with the 2 PET/CT studies, all patients who were 68 Ga-DOTApeptide positive and 18 F-FDG negative had a postsurgical histological diagnosis of TC, whereas all (but 1 patient) who were 68 Ga-DOTApeptide negative and 18 F-FDG positive had a postsurgical histological diagnosis of AC.…”

Large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the lung: CT and FDG PET findings

“…The authors also reported that the SUVmax of LCNECs was significantly higher than that of carcinoids (n = 7; 2 typical carcinoids and 5 atypical carcinoids; range, 1.7-7.1; mean, 4.0; median, 3.4) and lower than that of SCLCs (n = 15, range, 6.1-17.3; mean, 11.6; median, 11.7). In a recent study of pulmonary carcinoid tumours, the mean SUVmax of atypical carcinoids (n = 6) was 8.1 ± 4.1, and the mean for typical carcinoids was 2.7 ± 1.6 (n = 23) [21]. Our result suggests that the SUVmax of LCNECs is higher than that of typical carcinoid tumours and consistent with that of malignant lung nodules.…”

18F-FDG PET/CT rarely provides additional information other than primary tumor detection in patients with pulmonary carcinoid tumors

“…However, several other reports that included a larger number of patients and large-size tumors indicate that FDG PET or PET/CT have a higher sensitivity similar to our results. [891011] There were some limitations of FDG PET/CT for evaluating pulmonary carcinoid tumors: (a) low FDG affinity of especially small carcinoid tumors; (b) FDG uptake of these endobronchial tumors may be obscure from intense FDG uptake of distal obstructive atelectasis. Kayani et al .…”