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Positron emission tomography in the staging of patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A prospective multicentric study by the Intergruppo Italiano Linfomi

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Abstract

In this prospective multicentric study, we investigated the contribution of positron emission tomography (PET) scanning to the staging of Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL) by computed tomography (CT) and attempted to determine whether it has any impact on therapeutic approach. One hundred eighty six consecutive patients with HL from six Italian centers were enrolled in this study. They were staged with conventional methods; 2-[fluorine-18]fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose PET scanning were prospectively compared to CT. CT and FDG-PET stages were concordant in 156 patients (84%) and discordant in 30 patients (16%). PET stage in comparison to CT stage was higher in 27 patients (14%) and lower in 3 patients (1%). The programmed treatment strategy was modified in 11 out of 30 patients (37%) after the definition of final stage. If we considered the 123 CT staged patients with localized stage, ten patients (8%) with a change of stage from localized to advanced after PET evaluation were treated with different strategy. FDG-PET was shown to be a relevant, non-invasive method that supplements conventional procedures and should therefore be used routinely to stage HL, particularly in early stage patients, where a change in stage may modify disease management.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Massimiliano Cariati for linguistic review of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hematology and Nuclear Medicine, Careggi Hospital and University of Florence, Florence, Italy

    Luigi Rigacci, Luca Nassi, Antonio Castagnoli & Alberto Bosi

  2. Hematology and Nuclear Medicine, Hospital S. Giovanni Battista, Turin, Italy

    Umberto Vitolo, Patrizia Pregno & Ettore Pelosi

  3. Hematology and Nuclear Medicine, Arcispedale S. Maria Nuova, Reggio Emilia, Italy

    Francesco Merli, Isabel Alvarez & Annibale Versari

  4. Hematology and Nuclear Medicine, Hospital S. Croce e` Carle, Cuneo, Italy

    Andrea Gallamini & Alberto Biggi

  5. Hematology, Hospital SS. Antonio e Biagio, Alessandria, Italy

    Flavia Salvi & Alessandro Levis

  6. Hematology and Nuclear Medicine, Hospital SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, Italy

    Rosaria Sancetta, Michele Gregianin & Teodoro Chisesi

  7. Department of Hematology, University of Florence, Viale Morgagni 85, 50134, Florence, Italy

    Luigi Rigacci

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  1. Luigi Rigacci
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  2. Umberto Vitolo
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Consortia

On behalf of Intergruppo Italiano Linfomi

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luigi Rigacci.

Appendix

Appendix

Participating institutions and principal investigators of the Intergruppo Italiano Linfomi include the following:

SOD Ematologia Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Firenze (R. Alterini, V. Carrai); Oncologia Medica Ospedale Prato (S. Santini); Medicina Nucleare Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Firenze (M. Matteini, L. Vaggelli); Radiodiagnostica 1 Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Firenze (C. Dini); U.O.A Ematologia Azienda Ospedaliera San Giovanni Battista Torino (E. Gallo, U. Vitolo); Medicina Nucleare Azienda Ospedaliera S. Giovanni Battista Torino (E. Pelosi); Servizio di Ematologia Arcispedale S. Maria Nuova Reggio Emilia (Paolo Avanzini, Fiorella Ilariucci); SC Medicina Nucleare Arcispedale S. Maria Muova Reggio Emilia (A. Versari); S.C. Ematologia Azienda Ospedaliera S. Croce e Carle Cuneo (S. Tavera); SC Medicina Nucleare Azienda Ospedaliera S. Croce e Carle Cuneo (A. Biggi); S.C. Ematologia Azienda Ospedaliera SS Antonio e Biagio Alessandria (A. Levis); UO Ematologia Ospedale SS Giovanni e Paolo Venezia (T. Chisesi); UO Medicina Nucleare Ospedale SS Giovanni e Paolo Azienda ULSS 12 Venezia (M. Gregianin).

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Rigacci, L., Vitolo, U., Nassi, L. et al. Positron emission tomography in the staging of patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A prospective multicentric study by the Intergruppo Italiano Linfomi. Ann Hematol 86, 897–903 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00277-007-0356-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00277-007-0356-9

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