Can fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography detect hepatocellular carcinoma and its extrahepatic metastases?

• Main Author: Ekhlas Abdelmonem Ibrahem Nasr Shaban
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2018-03-01
• Series: The Egyptian Journal of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378603X17302000

Aims: The point of this research is to investigate the potential role of (18-F-FDG/PET) in the identification of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and its metastases. Patients and method: The present study was performed on 22 patients (15 newly diagnosed, 7 previously treated).18F-FDG was injected IV 1 h before the scan. Non-contrast-enhanced CT was performed trailed by PET in the same session. PET/CT scans were performed on (Philips Gemini-NM system). The whole study took around 20–30 min. Results: PET/CT revealed increased local liver tumor 18-F-FDG uptake in 13/17 of those patients (6 solitary uptakes and 7 multi-nodular uptakes). Primary tumor SUV max. extended from 3 to 11 (mean 6.1) and liver tumor background ratio (TBR) varied from 0.4 to 3 (mean 2.05). 18-F-FDG PET/CT showed extrahepatic metastasis in 6 newly diagnosed patients. It also showed local tumor recurrence in 4 treated patients; 3 of them with no metastasis and 1 previously treated patient had local recurrence and distant metastasis. PET/CT has 76.5% sensitivity, 60% specificity, 86.7% PPV, 42.9% NPV and 59% accuracy in defining HCC and its extrahepatic metastases. Conclusion: This study affirms the achievability of 18-F-FDG PET/CT for identification of primary HCC and its extrahepatic metastases. Keywords: PET/CT, Liver, Hepatocellular carcinoma