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FDG PET/CT imaging in primary osseous and soft tissue sarcomas: a retrospective review of 212 cases

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European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The aims of this study are to evaluate the sensitivity of FDG PET/CT for detection of soft tissue and osseous sarcomas on the basis of FDG avidity.

Methods

We retrospectively evaluated 212 consecutive patients with known soft tissue or osseous sarcoma who had undergone a FDG PET/CT study for the initial staging or assessment of recurrence of disease. The maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) of each primary and/or most intense metastatic lesion was measured and compared with the histological data provided in the final pathological reports. An SUVmax of 2.5 or greater was considered positive for our analysis.

Results

Sufficient histopathological data were available for 160 soft tissue sarcomas and 52 osseous sarcomas. FDG PET/CT detected 93.9% of all sarcomas with a sensitivity of 93.7% for soft tissue sarcomas and 94.6% for osseous sarcomas. The sensitivities of the most common sarcoma histologies were 100% for leiomyosarcomas, 94.7% for osteosarcomas, 100% for Ewing’s sarcomas, 88.9% for liposarcomas, 80.0% for synovial sarcomas, 100% for gastrointestinal stromal tumors, 87.5% for malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors, 100% for fibroblastic and myoblastic sarcomas, and 100% for malignant fibrohistiocytic tumors. The receiver-operating characteristic curve revealed an area under the curve of 94% for the discrimination of low-grade and high-grade sarcomas imaged for initial staging by FDG PET/CT.

Conclusion

The combined metabolic and morphological information of FDG PET/CT imaging allows high sensitivity for the detection of various sarcomas and accurate discrimination between newly diagnosed low-grade and high-grade sarcomas.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Service of Nuclear Medicine, Lakeshore General Hospital, 160 Stillview Street, Pointe-Claire, Canada, H9R 2Y2

    Mathieu Charest

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, McGill University Health Center, Montreal, Canada

    Marc Hickeson, Robert Lisbona, Javier-A. Novales-Diaz & Vilma Derbekyan

  3. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, McGill University Health Center, Montreal, Canada

    Robert E. Turcotte

Authors
  1. Mathieu Charest
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  2. Marc Hickeson
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  3. Robert Lisbona
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  4. Javier-A. Novales-Diaz
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  5. Vilma Derbekyan
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  6. Robert E. Turcotte
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mathieu Charest.

Additional information

An Editorial Commentary on this paper is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00259-009-1222-x

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Charest, M., Hickeson, M., Lisbona, R. et al. FDG PET/CT imaging in primary osseous and soft tissue sarcomas: a retrospective review of 212 cases. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 36, 1944–1951 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-009-1203-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-009-1203-0

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