Chest 2001 Mar;119(3):950-4
Positron emission tomography in the staging of small-cell lung cancer :
a preliminary study.
Hauber HP, Bohuslavizki KH, Lund CH, Fritscher-Ravens A, Meyer A, Pforte A.
Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
[email protected]
STUDY OBJECTIVES: Small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) has an unfavorable prognosis, especially
when the disease is extensive at presentation. Accurate staging procedures are therefore
needed for treatment planning. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a modern noninvasive
imaging technique, the value of which for the staging of SCLC was investigated in the
present study. SETTING: University hospital. PATIENTS: Thirty-one patients with suspected
lung cancer were investigated for staging purposes using chest radiography, CT of the
thorax and abdomen, abdominal ultrasound, and bone scanning. Twenty-five patients also
received PET examinations during the staging procedures. Five of these patients were found
to have SCLC, while two patients had mixed lesion types. Further analysis of the latter
group was carried out. RESULTS: PET detected the primary tumor in all patients, and lymph
nodes in five patients. All lymph nodes were proved to be malignant by endoscopic
ultrasonography-guided fine-needle aspiration. Only one patient had distant metastases,
which were detected by both CT and PET. CONCLUSIONS: PET appears be a suitable imaging
method in SCLC. A potential role for the technique as a standard staging procedure will
need to be tested by investigating a larger number of patients in a prospective study.
PMID: 11243980
