Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences
Abstract
Our purpose in this retrospective study was to determine the ratio of unexpected [metastases within the coverage area of thorax computed tomography (CT)] and unknown (metastases out of the coverage area of thorax CT) metastases by positron emission tomography/CT (PET/CT) in patients with newly diagnosed non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had no defined metastatic lesion, and to investigate the contribution of fludeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET/CT in metastasis staging. Materials and methods: A total of 567 patients (489 males and 78 females, mean age 60.9 ± 10.7 years) were enrolled in this study. Among the 567 patients, a total of 156 patients who underwent PET/CT for metabolic characterization (group 1) and had solitary pulmonary nodules (group 1a, n = 39) or solitary pulmonary masses (group 1b, n = 117) and the remaining 411 patients (group 2) with NSCLC who had PET/CT performed for staging formed the basis of this study. Results: In group 1, 5/39 (12.8%) patients with a solitary pulmonary nodule and 29/117 (24.8%) patients with a solitary pulmonary mass had distant metastases. In group 2, 129 patients of 411 (31.4%) had distant metastasis. Conclusion: FDG-PET/CT is proven to be an effective method in detection of unsuspected-unknown metastasis, either in patients with solitary pulmonary lesion or in the initial staging of patients with NSCLC.
DOI
10.3906/sag-1311-104
Keywords
18F-FDG, NSCLC, unsuspected and unknown metastases
First Page
1029
Last Page
1040
Recommended Citation
HALAÇ, M, ÖZHAN, M, AKSOY, S. Y, VATANKULU, B, ALIYEV, A, ASA, S, ATAHAN, E, SAĞER, M. S, & SÖNMEZOĞLU, K (2014). The role of FDG-PET/CT in detecting unsuspected and unknown distant metastasis in the initial staging of NSCLC. Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences 44 (6): 1029-1040. https://doi.org/10.3906/sag-1311-104