Breast Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Breast Cancer, including details on symptoms, genetics, screening, treatment, information.

Fluorodeoxyglucose-PET in the management of breast cancer.

Kumar R, Alavi A

Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Radiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Spruce Street, 110 Donner Building, Philadelphia 19104, USA.

FDG-PET can be helpful in the diagnosis of primary breast cancer, especially in patients with dense breast tissue, significant fibrocystic changes, fibrosis after radiotherapy, and inconclusive results from MR imaging and other imaging modalities. PET has a limited role in patients with very small tumors and with well-differentiated and lobular types of breast cancer. In preoperative staging, FDG-PET has a low sensitivity for detection of regional lymph node involvement. Also, current PET imaging techniques can easily miss micrometastases. FDG-PET, however, has high positive predictive value for the axillary lymph node involvement, especially patient with advanced tumors. Compared with conventional imaging modalities, FDG-PET provides high diagnostic accuracy in detecting recurrent or metastatic breast carcinoma. FDG-PET seems to be highly useful for monitoring response to therapeutic interventions. This technique can identify response to therapy earlier than any other imaging method currently available. Obviously, identification of nonresponding patients could greatly improve patient management by allowing termination of ineffective and toxic therapies.

Published 18 October 2004 in Radiol Clin North Am, 42(6): 1113-22, ix.
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