Thoracic nodal staging in non-small cell lung cancer by FDG-PET.

Yoo, Ji Hoon; Kwon, Sung Youn; Yoo, Chul Gyu; Lee, Choon Taek; Kim, Young Whan; Han, Sung Koo; Shim, Young Soo

doi:2000.49.3.290

Tuberc Respir Dis > Volume 49(3); 2000 > Article

Original Article

Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases 2000;49(3):290-297.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4046/trd.2000.49.3.290 Published online September 1, 2000.

Thoracic nodal staging in non-small cell lung cancer by FDG-PET.

Ji Hoon Yoo, Sung Youn Kwon, Chul Gyu Yoo, Choon Taek Lee, Young Whan Kim, Sung Koo Han, Young Soo Shim

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Current non-invasive methods for evaluating the mediastinum by computed tomographic(CT) scan have limited sensitivity and specificity. The recently introduced PET was reported to be a more sensitive and specific method for the mediastinal staging of NSCLC(sensitivity:76-100%, specificity:81-100%) than CT or MRI. We assessed the usefulness of PET in the mediastinal staging of NSCLC. METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of NSCLC patients that had undertaken staging work-up by both CT and PET before thoracotomy between January 1997 and December 1998. A total of 23 patients were enrolled in the study(14 males and 7 females) with a mean age of 61±9 years. By comparing the clinical(CT and PET) and pathologic stagings, we evaluated the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of PET in thoracic nodal staging. RESULTS: Sensitivity, specificity, positive predicted value and negative predicted value were 38%, 40%, 25% and 50% respectively for computed tomography, and 50%, 60%, 30% and 69% for PET. The accuracy of FDG-PET in our study was lower than that reported by previous other studies. CONCLUSION: Tne addition of FDG-PET to CT scanning has limited benefit for the thoracic nodal staging of NSCLC, but its value in our study was lower than that observed by others.

Key Words: PET, Non-small cell lung cancer, CT