PET/MR Outperforms PET/CT in Suspected Occult Tumors

To compare the diagnostic accuracy of PET/MR and PET/CT in patients with suspected occult primary tumors.

This prospective study was approved by the institutional review board. Sequential PET/CT-MR was performed in 43 patients (22 male subjects; median age, 58 years; range, 20-86 years) referred for suspected occult primary tumors. Patients were assessed with PET/CT and PET/MR for the presence of a primary tumor, lymph node metastases, and distant metastases. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was performed to compare the diagnostic accuracy of PET/CT and PET/MR.

According to the standard of reference, a primary lesion was found in 14 patients. In 16 patients, the primary lesion remained occult. In the remaining 13 patients, lesions proved to be benign. PET/MR was superior to PET/CT for primary tumor detection (sensitivity/specificity, 0.85/0.97 vs 0.69/0.73; P = 0.020) and comparable to PET/CT for the detection of lymph node metastases (sensitivity/specificity, 0.93/1.00 vs 0.93/0.93; P = 0.157) and distant metastases (sensitivity/specificity, 1.00/0.97 vs 0.82/1.00; P = 0.564). PET/CT tended to misclassify physiologic FDG uptake as malignancy compared with PET/MR (8 patients vs 1 patient).

PET/MR outperforms PET/CT in the workup of suspected occult malignancies. PET/MR may replace PET/CT to improve clinical workflow.