Positron emission tomography in breast cancer: a clinicopathological correlation of results.

Abstract

We conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of positron emission tomography (PET) scans in 109 patients with primary recurrent or metastatic breast cancer. All patients had a PET scan, X-ray or CT scan of the chest, an ultrasound or CT scan of the liver and a bone scan. Mammography was available for 86 patients. Correlation between the PET scan result and histological findings were made. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the PET scan were calculated for both the primary tumour (T) and lymph nodes (N). In patients with metastasis (M) the accuracy of the PET scan was compared with other imaging modalities. Histological results of the site in question were available in only 105 patients. Information for the primary tumour was available for 93 patients and for nodes in 74. The PET scan was accurate in 89.2% for (T), with 3.2% false positive and 7.6% false negative. For (N) the PET scan was accurate in 90.5% with 9.5% false negative. In the 86 patients who underwent both mammography and PET scanning, the PET scan was more accurate in 89.5% versus 72% (p = 0.0003). In the 19 patients with metastasis, the PET scan was in agreement with other imaging modalities in 100% of cases. PET scanning is the only non-invasive imaging procedure that will detect tumours in the breast, lymph nodes, lung, liver, bone and bone marrow with high sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. It is a valuable tool in the management of patients in all stages of breast cancer for diagnosis, staging and following treatment response.

Intratumoral metabolic heterogeneity predicts invasive components in breast ductal carcinoma in situ

“…According to separate studies, the sensitivity of 18 F-FDG PET for DCIS ranged from 25 % to 76.9 % [31][32][33], while the sensitivity of BSGI for DCIS was reportedly up to 91 % [34]. Although BSGI had better efficacy for delineating DCIS lesions than 18 F-FDG PET, limited visualization of the entire breast close to the chest wall is a distinct disadvantage [35].…”

Sequential Positron Emission Tomography Using [18F]Fluorodeoxyglucose for Monitoring Response to Chemotherapy in Metastatic Breast Cancer

“…PET is now increasingly used in the field of breast cancer, as metabolic imaging alone may provide results very similar to those obtained with the combination of several conventional imaging methods (5,13). In particular, PET may be useful when a tumor recurrence is suspected but conventional staging methods are negative or inconclusive, especially in case of increased tumor marker levels (14).…”

Impact of positron emission tomography on strategy in liver resection for primary and secondary liver tumors

“…Increased FDG-accumulation has been described in the literature with metastases from gall bladder, breast [40,41], ovarian [42,43,44,45], pharyngeal [39], and thyroid cancer [34], as well as different types of leiomyosarcoma [46,47,48,49], but we had very limited numbers of these lesions during this study period.…”