A PET scan after the first round of neoadjuvant chemotherapy can predict increased survival in patients with soft-tissue sarcomas, according to a study published April 1 in Clinical Cancer Research, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR).
Researchers from the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA studied 39 patients with soft-tissue sarcoma who received a PET scan to measure tumor metabolism prior to chemotherapy. The patients also were given a PET scan after the first round of chemotherapy.
Patients whose tumors demonstrated a 25% or more decrease in metabolic activity were determined later to have significant increased survival rates compared to those patients who had less than a 25% decrease, according to senior study author Dr. Fritz Eilber, associate professor of surgical oncology and director of the sarcoma program at the cancer center.
Eilber said the study results show that physicians can now identify whether patients are getting the right chemotherapy more quickly.
The UCLA researchers currently are working on new molecular imaging tools that may reveal more about a patient's cancer beyond the conventional FDG probe.
