Abstract
Introduction
Mastocytosis is a clonal haematological disease characterized by uncontrolled proliferation and the activation of mast cells. The value of FDG-PET/CT (FDG-PET) in mastocytosis has yet to be determined.
Methods
We retrospectively identified patients with an established diagnosis of systemic mastocytosis (SM), according to the WHO criteria, who underwent PET using the French Reference Centre for Mastocytosis database. Semi-quantitative and visual analysis of FDG-PET was performed and compared to the clinico-biological data.
Results
Our cohort included 19 adult patients, median age 65 years [range 58–74], including three with smouldering SM (SSM), three with aggressive SM (ASM), 10 with an associated clonal haematological non-mast-cell lineage disease (SM-AHNMD), and three with mast cell sarcoma (MCS). FDG-PET was performed at the time of the SM diagnosis (15/19), to evaluate lymph node (LN) activity (3/19) or the efficacy of therapy (1/19). FDG uptake was observed in the bone marrow (BM) (9/19, 47 %), LN (6/19, 32 %), spleen (12/19, 63 %), or liver (1/19, 5 %). No significant FDG uptake was observed in the SSM and ASM patients. A pathological FDG uptake was observed in the BM of 6/10 patients with SM-AHNMD, appearing as diffuse and homogeneous, and in the LN of 5/10 patients. All 3 MCS patients showed intense and multifocal BM pathological uptake, mimicking metastasis. No correlation was found between the FDG-PET findings and serum tryptase levels, BM mast cell infiltration percentage, and CD30 and CD2 expression by mast cells.
Conclusions
FDG uptake does not appear to be a sensitive marker of mast cell activation or proliferation because no significant FDG uptake was observed in most common forms of mastocytosis (notably purely aggressive SM). However, pathological FDG uptake was observed in the SM-AHNMD and in MCS cases, suggesting a role of FDG-PET in their early identification and as a tool of therapeutic assessment in this subgroup of patients.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Isabelle Hirsch and Laure Cabaret from CEREMAST for their work as clinical trial associates.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study formal consent is not required.
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study
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S. Djelbani-Ahmed and M. O. Chandesris contributed equally to this work.
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Djelbani-Ahmed, S., Chandesris, M.O., Mekinian, A. et al. FDG-PET/CT findings in systemic mastocytosis: a French multicentre study. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 42, 2013–2020 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-015-3117-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-015-3117-3