PET developer CompañĂa Mexicana de RadiologĂa (CMR) Naviscan is highlighting a recent study that demonstrates positron emission mammography (PEM) is capable of differentiating malignant breast tumors from benign lesions with 100% sensitivity and 96% specificity.
The study, which will be published in the January 2016 edition of German nuclear medicine journal Nuklearmedizin, showed that the differentiation is possible when a threshold of maximum PEM uptake value (PUV) of 1.9 is applied, CMR Naviscan said.
In the prospective single-site study, 107 women and one man with clinically suspicious breast lesions were imaged. Each patient received 3.5 MBq of F-18 FDG per kg of body weight and then a PEM exam 90 minutes after injection. A region of interest was used for analysis. Based on a criterion of being at high risk of malignancy, 31 out of 151 lesions in 108 patients were identified as possible cancers and biopsied, revealing 26 malignant lesions.
The study is the first to use PEM to both identify high-risk lesions and then use the same device for biopsy guidance, the firm said. This approach could be especially important for women who cannot tolerate a breast MRI, according to the company.
