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Semi-quantitative Assessment Using [18F]FDG Tracer in Patients with Severe Brain Injury
Published on: November 9, 2018
FDG-PET on irradiated brain tumor: ten years' summary
S X Wang1, J Boethius, K Ericson
1Weilun PET Center, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangzhou, P R China.
Purpose:
To evaluate FDG-PET in post-radiotherapy differentiation of tumor recurrence/malignant degeneration and radiation reaction, and to assess the role of PET in terms of survival.
Material And Methods:
117 consecutive patients with a total of 156 FDG-PET examinations with positive but non-diagnostic MRI and/or CT were included. Final diagnosis was based on histopathology or correlated with radiologic and clinical follow-up. Brain metastases from lung carcinomas were further studied separately. Survival time was analysed using the Kaplan-Meier method.
Results:
There were 61 true-positive, 2 false-positive, 15 false-negative, and 51 true-negative PET examinations; 5 positive and 22 negative PET examinations were indeterminate. The positive predictive value of a PET examination was 96% in all and 100% in brain metastases from lung carcinoma. The negative predictive value based on the histopathologic results was 55.6%. Survival time was significantly longer in patients with negative PET.
Conclusion:
FDG-PET is a valuable tool in the detection of tumor recurrence, especially lung carcinoma metastasis. FDG uptake is a prognostic marker.

