Title:Evaluation of the Reliability of Interim PET/CT in the Hodgkin Lymphoma
Volume: 16
Author(s): Rafet Eren, Cihan Gündoğan, Ceyda Aslan, Alper Koç, Mehmet Hilmi Doğu, Şermin Altındal, Osman Yokuş, Elif Suyanı and Tevfik Fikret Çermik*
Affiliation:
- Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul,Turkey
Keywords:
Hodgkin lymphoma, interim PET, CT scan, 18F-fludeoxyglucose, deauville score, tumor.
Abstract: Introduction: Positron-emission tomography (PET)/computerized tomography (CT)
with 18F-fludeoxyglucose (FDG) has been come into use for risk assessment of Hodgkin lymphoma
(HL) patients in recent years. The aim of our study is to evaluate the reliability of interim PET results
according to Deauville score (DS), and also to compared PET findings with tumor reduction
on CT.
Methods: Forty-two HL patients (median 39, range 19-75 y, 27 M, 15 F) were retrospectively
evaluated with pre, interim and post-treatment PET/CT imaging. PET/CT imaging was obtained 60
min after the intravenous administration of 3.7-5.2 MBq/kg 18F-FDG.
Results: The negative predictive value of the interim PET was 89%. Four (10.5%) of the 38 interim
PET-negative patients became post-treatment PET-positive. According to CT, 15 patients were in
complete remission (CR), 27 (64.6%) patients were in partial remission (PR) or stable disease
(SD).
Conclusion: The negative predictive value of interim PET was not satisfactory considering the
treatment rate of over 80% of HL. Additionally, high rate of interim PET-negative patients’ conversion
to PET-positive post-treatment state was considered as unexpected.
