Extended PET-CT recommended for T-cell lymphomas

A newly published study suggests that patients with T-cell lymphomas would benefit from a more extensive PET-CT scan than is currently used.

Researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center did a retrospective review of T-cell lymphoma patients who had undergone PET/CT examination for initial disease staging or at disease relapse over a 5-year period. They identified 135 patients with a view towards determining whether T-cell lymphomas would have so-called high rates of FDG positivity, meaning, are these lymphomas good candidates for FDG PET-CT scanning?

CONCLUSIONS

They determined that high rates of FDG positivity did indeed exist in T-cell lymphomas and "given the propensity for disease involvement outside the normal scan range of diagnostic CT, we recommend that patients with T-cell lymphoma be scanned from vertex to feet by use of PET/CT.".

HOW DOES FDG WORK?

FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose) is the radiopharmaceutical agent used during a PET-CT scan because the rapid uptake of FDG by cancer cells allows the health care professionals to determine the extent of cancer in the body.

HEMATOLOGICAL CANCER TYPE(S)

T-cell lymphomas (both cutaneous and peripheral).

WHERE WAS THIS RESEARCH PUBLISHED?

The American Journal of Roentgenology

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

I was unable to determine whether or not the authors of the study had reported any conflicts of interest.

Citation

Feeney et al. "Characterization of T-Cell Lymphomas by FDG PET/CT." Am. J. Roentgenol..2010; 195: 333-340