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Usefulness of 18F-FDG PET/CT for the Evaluation of Bone Marrow Involvement in Patients with High-Grade Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

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Abstract

Purpose

To assess the usefulness of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT in the detection of bone marrow (BM) involvement of high-grade non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL).

Methods

One hundred twenty patients with newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma or peripheral T-cell lymphoma between January 2007 and June 2011, who received BM trephine biopsy and 18F-FDG PET/CT before chemotherapy, were included in this retrospective study. We reviewed their 18F-FDG PET/CT images and bone marrow biopsy (BMB) results. After reviewing the images, we reviewed the medical records and radiological findings of interesting patients.

Results

There were 23 18F-FDG PET/CT scans in which the marrow was considered to be abnormal (either positive or equivocal), and 97 18F-FDG PET/CT scans were regarded as having negative FDG uptake. Of 120 patients, 100 (83.3 %) had a concordant result of BM interpretation between 18F-FDG PET/CT and BMB, and the remaining 20 patients had discordant results. Among 23 patients with either positive or equivocal 18F-FDG PET/CT scans, 1 of 12 patients with ‘positive’ 18F-FDG PET/CT had a lymphomatous involvement on BMB. In contrast, 10 of 11 patients with ‘equivocal’ BM hypermetabolism were reported as having positive involvement by BMB. Patients with abnormal 18F-FDG PET/CT had significantly higher mSUVhighest than those with normal FDG-PET/CT.

Conclusions

18F-FDG PET/CT and BMB are complementary techniques in assessing the presence of BM involvement in patients with high-grade NHL. The increasing availability of 18F-FDG PET/CT will raise the need for additional biopsy for FDG-avid lesions, especially in patients with negative standard BMBs. 18F-FDG PET/CT can be useful as a decision-making tool for determining whether to perform a standard BMB or targeted biopsy to the FDG-avid lesion as an initial staging procedure. A direct bone biopsy for FDGpositive bone lesions should be included in staging guidelines in future. In 18F-FDG PET/CT-negative cases, BMB is still a powerful procedure, but BMB alone is insufficient for full evaluation of BM.

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We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Gachon University Gil Hospital, Incheon, Republic of Korea

    Yukyung Lee, Kyung Hoon Hwang, Ji Hyun Kim, Haejun Lee & Seog Gyun Kim

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, Gachon University Gil Hospital, Incheon, Republic of Korea

    Junshik Hong, Jinny Park, Jae Hoon Lee & Ji Young Shin

  3. Department of laboratory Medicine, Gachon University Gil Hospital, Incheon, Republic of Korea

    Jeong Yeal Ahn

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  1. Yukyung Lee
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  2. Kyung Hoon Hwang
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Correspondence to Kyung Hoon Hwang.

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Lee, Y., Hwang, K.H., Hong, J. et al. Usefulness of 18F-FDG PET/CT for the Evaluation of Bone Marrow Involvement in Patients with High-Grade Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 46, 269–277 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-012-0153-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-012-0153-9

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