Abstract
Esophageal cancer is one of the most fatal cancers principally because of its late presentation. CECT plays an important role in the staging of esophageal cancer but has some limitations. PET/CT which provides physiological information along with anatomical information and is a whole body imaging technique may therefore be a better alternative and thereby can facilitate selection or exclusion of patients for resection. The aim was to evaluate the performance of F18 FDG PET/CT in the staging and restaging of esophageal carcinoma compared to CECT using histopathologic findings and clinical follow-up as gold standard. Twenty eight patients with proven esophageal carcinoma, both preoperative and postoperative, were studied with CECT and F18 FDG PET/CT scan within an interval of 2 weeks. The PET/CT scan was acquired after injection of 370 MBq (10 mCi) F18-FDG and was evaluated for areas of increased focal uptake. CECT scan of chest and abdomen was done after injection of iodinated non-ionic contrast media. CECT findings suggested stage-IV disease in 16/28 (57.14%) patients and non stage-IV disease in 12/28 (42.86%) patients, whereas PET/CT suggested stage-IV disease in 23/28 (82.14%) patients and non stage-IV disease in 5/28 (17.86%) patients. Total nine patients were upstaged by PET/CT compared to CECT, out of which 7 (25%) were correctly upstaged and 2 (7.14%) were falsely upstaged. PET/CT improved our ability to detect distant metastases in 25% of patients that was missed by CECT. So, the use of F18 FDG PET/CT in esophageal cancer can alter management in significant number of patients.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Boring CC, Squires TS, Tong T (1993) Cancer statistics, 1993. CA Cancer J Clin 43:7–26
Blot WJ, Devesea SS, Kneller RW, Fraumeni JF Jr (1991) Rising incidence of adenocarcinoma of the esophagus and gastric cardia. JAMA 265:1287–1289
Schottenfeld D (1984) Epidemiology of cancer of the esophagus. Semin Oncol 11:92–100
Schoenberg BS, Bailer JC, Fraumeni JF Jr (1971) Certain mortality patterns of esophageal cancer in the United States, 1930–67. J Natl Cancer Inst 46:63–73
Aylomamitis A (1988) Epidemiology of cancer of the esophagus in Canada: 1931-1984. Gastroenterology 94:374–380
Kobori O, Kirihara Y, Kosaka N, Hara T (1999) Positron emission tomography of esophageal carcinoma using 11 C-choline and 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose: a novel method of preoperative lymph node staging. Cancer 86:1638–1648
Flanagan FL, Dehdashti F, Siegel BA, Trash DD, Sundaresan SR, Pattersan GA et al (1997) Staging of esophageal cancer with F18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography. Am J Roentgenol 168:417–424
Roth JA, Pass HI, Flanagan MM, Graeber GM, Rosenberg JC, Steinberg S (1988) Randomized clinical trial of preoperative and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy with cisplatin, vindesine, and bleomycin for carcinoma of the esophagus. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 96:242–248
Urba SG, Orringer MB, Turrisi A, Iannettoni M, Forastiere A, Strawderman M (2001) Randomized trial of preoperative chemoradiation versus surgery alone in patients with locoregional esophageal carcinoma. J Clin Oncol 19:305–313
Kelsen DP, Ginsberg R, Pajak TF, Sheahan DG, Gunderson L, Mortimer J et al (1998) Chemotherapy followed by surgery compared with surgery alone for localized esophageal cancer. N Engl J Med 339:1979–1984
Bar-Shalom R, Valdivia AY, Blaufox MD (2000) PET imaging in oncology. Semin Nucl Med 30:150–185
May A, Ell C (2006) Diagnosis and treatment of early esophageal cancer. Curr Opin Gastroenterol 22:433–436
Pfau PR, Perlman SB, Stanko P, Frick TJ, Gopal DV, Said A et al (2007) The role and clinical value of EUS in a multimodality esophageal carcinoma staging program with CT and positron emission tomography. Gastrointest Endosc 65:377–384
Gan SI, Rajan E, Adler DG, Baron TH, Anderson MA, Cash BD et al (2007) Role of EUS. Gastrointest Endosc 66:425–434
Zhang X, Watson DI, Lally C, Bessell JR (2005) Endoscopic ultrasound for preoperative staging of esophageal carcinoma. Surg Endosc 19:1618–1621
Sun L, Su XH, Guan YS, Pan WM, Luo ZM, Wei JH et al (2009) Clinical usefulness of F18-FDG PET/CT in the restaging of esophageal cancer after surgical resection and radiotherapy. World J Gastroenterol 15(15):1836–1842
Roder JD, Busch R, Stein HJ, Fink U, Siewert JR (1994) Ratio of invaded to removed lymph nodes as a predictor of survival in squamous cell carcinoma of the oesophagus. Br J Surg 81:410–413
Choi JY, Lee KH, Shim YM, Lee KS, Kim JJ, Kim SE et al (2000) Improved detection of individual nodal involvement in squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus by FDG PET. J Nucl Med 41:808–815
Lerut T, Coosemans W, Decker G, De Leyn P, Nafteux P, Van Raemdonck D (2001) Cancer of the esophagus and gastro-esophageal junction: potentially curative therapies. Surg Oncol 10:113–122
Greenstein AJ, Litle VR, Swanson SJ, Divino CM, Packer S, Wisnivesky JP (2008) Prognostic significance of the number of lymph node metastases in esophageal cancer. J Am Coll Surg 206:239–246
Wilson M, Rosato EL, Chojnacki KA, Chervoneva I, Kairys JC, Cohn HE (2008) Prognostic significance of lymph node metastases and ratio in esophageal cancer. J Surg Res 146:11–15
Vilgrain V, Mompoint D, Palazzo L, Menu Y, Gayet B, Ollier P et al (1990) Staging of esophageal carcinoma: comparison of results with endoscopic sonography and CT. AJR l55:277–281
Gore RM (2005) Upper gastrointestinal tract tumours: diagnosis and staging strategies. Cancer Imaging 5:95–98
Tio TL, Coene PP, Schouwink MH, Tytgat GN (1989) Esophagogastric carcinoma: preoperative TNM classification with endosonography. Radiology 173:411–417
Massari M, Cioffi U, De Simone M, Lattuada E, Montorsi M, Segalin A et al (1997) Endoscopic ultrasonography for preoperative staging of esophageal carcinoma. Surg Laparosc Endosc 7:l62–l165
Block MI, Patterson GA, Sundaresan RS, Bailey MS, Flanagan FL, Dehdashti F et al (1997) Improvement in staging of esophageal cancer with the addition of positron emission tomography. Ann Thorac Surg 64:770–776
Van Westreenen HL, Heeren PA, Jager PL, van Dullemen HM, Groen H, Plukker JT (2003) Pitfalls of positive findings in staging esophageal cancer with F18- fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography. Ann Surg Oncol 10:1100–1105
Flamen P, Lerut A, Van Cutsem E, De Wever W, Peeters M, Stroobants S et al (2000) Utility of positron emission tomography for the staging of patients with potentially operable esophageal carcinoma. J Clin Oncol 18:3202–3210
Heeren PA, Jager PL, Bongaerts F, van Dullemen H, Sluiter V, Plukker JT (2004) Detection of distant metastases in esophageal cancer with F18-FDG PET. J Nucl Med 45(6):980–987
Okada M, Kumano Takamichi Murakami Seishi, Kuwabara M, Hosono Taro Shimono Makoto, Shiozaki H (2009) Integrated FDG-PET/CT compared with intravenous contrast-enhanced CT for evaluation of metastatic regional lymph nodes in patients with resectable early stage esophageal cancer. Ann Nucl Med 23:73–80
Kato H, Miyazaki T, Nakajima M, Takita J, Kimura H (2005) The incremental effect of positron emission tomography on diagnostic accuracy in the initial staging of esophageal carcinoma. Cancer 103:148–156
Kato H, Miyazaki T, Nakajima M, Fukuchi M, Manda R, Kuwano H (2001) Value of positron emission tomography in the diagnosis of recurrent oesophageal carcinoma. Br J Surg 91:1004–1009
Salahudeen HM, Balan A, Naik K, Mirsadraee S, Scarsbrook AF (2008) Impact of the introduction of integrated PET-CT into the preoperative staging pathway of patients with potentially operable oesophageal carcinoma. Clin Radiol 63:765–773
Gillies RS, Middleton MR, Maynard ND, Bradley KM, Gleeson FV (2011) Additional benefit of F18-fluorodeoxyglucose integrated positron emission tomography/computed tomography in the staging of oesophageal cancer. Eur Radiol 21(2):274–280
Conflict of interest
No conflict of interest exists with reference to this manuscript. No competing financial interests exist.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kumar, P., Damle, N.A. & Bal, C. Role of F18-FDG PET/CT in the Staging and Restaging of Esophageal Cancer: A Comparison with CECT. Indian J Surg Oncol 2, 343–350 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13193-012-0128-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13193-012-0128-4