[Cancer screening with whole-body FDG PET]

We are using whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) for cancer screening. A total of 1,105 healthy subjects have undergone PET studies 1,138 times in fifteen months. Emission scans were performed from the pelvis to the maxilla 45 to 60 minutes after intravenous administration of 260 to 370 MBq 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG). Malignant tumors were detected with PET in nine patients (0.81%): 2 lung cancers, 2 colonic cancers, 1 breast cancer, 1 thyroid cancer, 1 gastric cancer, 1 renal cancer, and 1 lymphoma. Eight of these patients underwent surgery (excepting the lymphoma patient). Lymph node metastasis was not observed in any of the eight cases and surgery was curative. PET scan results were negative in the cases of three prostatic cancers, one bladder cancer, and two colonic mucosal cancers. High FDG accumulations were noticed in benign lesions such as sarcoidosis, chronic thyroiditis, pulmonary tuberculoma, Warthin's tumor of the parotid gland, and chronic sinusitis. In some cases, image artifacts caused by intense myocardial FDG accumulations resulted in incomplete examinations of the lung. Occasionally, high FDG accumulations were observed in the bowel. Our study results suggest the possibility of using whole-body PET for detecting wide varieties of cancers in resectable stages.