Clinical Role of Upfront F-18 FDG PET/CT in Determining Biopsy Sites for Lung Cancer Diagnosis

This study aimed to investigate the impact of FDG PET/CT timing for biopsy site selection in patients with stage IV lung cancer regarding complications and diagnostic yield.

This retrospective analysis was performed on 1297 patients (924 men and 373 women with a mean age of 71.4 ± 10.2 years) who underwent percutaneous needle biopsy (PNB) for stage IV lung cancer diagnosis in two hospitals. Data collected included the patient's characteristics, order date of the biopsy and PET/CT exams, biopsy target site (lung or non-lung), guidance modality, complications, sample adequacy, and diagnostic success. Based on the order date of the PNB and PET/CT exams, patients were categorized into upfront and delayed PET/CT groups.

PNB for non-lung targets resulted in significantly lower rates of minor (8.1% vs. 16.2%), major (0.2% vs. 3.4%), and overall complications (8.3% vs. 19.6%) compared to PNB for lung targets (p < 0.001 for all types of complications). Compared to the delayed PET/CT group, the upfront PET/CT group exhibited a lower probability of lung target selection of PNB (53.9% vs. 67.1%, p < 0.001), including a reduced incidence of major complications (1.0% vs. 2.9%, p = 0.031). Moreover, there was no significant difference in the occurrence of minor and total complications between the two groups. Upfront PET/CT and delayed PET/CT groups showed no significant difference regarding sample adequacy and diagnostic success.

Upfront PET/CT may have an impact on the selection of the biopsy site for patients with advanced lung cancer, which could result in a lower rate of major complications with no change in the diagnostic yield. Upfront PET/CT demonstrates potential clinical implications for enhancing the safety of lung cancer diagnosis in clinical practice.