J Nucl Med 1997 Mar;38(3):343-8
Whole-body FDG-PET imaging for staging of Hodgkin's disease and lymphoma.
Hoh CK, Glaspy J, Rosen P, Dahlbom M, Lee SJ, Kunkel L, Hawkin RA, Maddahi J,
Phelps ME.
Accurate staging of Hodgkin's disease (HD) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) is
important for treatment management. In this study, the utility of
2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) whole-body PET was evaluated as an imaging
modality for initial staging or restaging of 7 HD and 11 NHL patients. METHODS:
Whole-body PET-based staging results were compared to the patient's clinical
stage based on conventional staging studies, which included combinations of CT
of the chest, abdomen and pelvis, MRI scans, gallium scans, lymphangiograms,
staging laparatomies and bone scans. RESULTS: Accurate staging was performed in
17 of 18 patients using a whole-body PET-based staging algorithm compared to the
conventional staging algorithm in 15 of 18 patients. In 5 of 18 patients,
whole-body PET-based staging showed additional lesions not detected by
conventional staging modalities, whereas conventional staging demonstrated
additional lesions in 4 of 18 patients not detected by whole-body PET. The total
cost of conventional staging was $66,292 for 16 CT chest scans, 16 CT
abdominal/pelvis scans, three limited MRI scans, four bone scans, five gallium
scans, two laparotomies and one lymphangiogram. In contrast, scans cost $36,250
for 18 whole-body PET studies and additional selected correlative studies: one
plain film radiograph, one limited CT, one bone marrow scan, one upper GI and
one endoscopy. CONCLUSION: A whole-body FDG-PET-based staging algorithm may be
an accurate and cost-effective method for staging or restaging HD and NHL.
