Detecting Metastatic Bladder Cancer Using (18)F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron-Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography

The purpose of this study was to retrospectively investigate the contribution of (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography ((18)F-FDG-PET/CT) to detection of metastatic bladder cancer.

The present study included 79 patients (69 men and 10 women) undergoing (18)F-FDG-PET/CT upon suspicion of metastatic bladder cancer between July 2007 and April 2013. The mean age was 66.1 years with a standard deviation of 10.7 years (range, 21 to 85 years). Patients were required to fast for 6 hours prior to scanning, and whole-body PET scanning from the skull base to the upper thighs was performed approximately 1 hour after intravenous injection of 555 MBq of (18)F-FDG. Whole body CT scanning was performed in the cranio-caudal direction. FDG-PET images were reconstructed using CT data for attenuation correction. Suspicious recurrent or metastatic lesions were confirmed by histopathology or clinical follow-up.

The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of (18)F-FDG-PET/CT were 89%, 78%, 90%, 75%, and 86%, respectively.

(18)F-FDG-PET/CT can detect metastases with high sensitivity and positive predictive values in patients with metastatic bladder carcinoma.