Comparative study of 18 F‐ FDG ‐ PET / CT imaging and serum hTERT mRNA quantification in cancer diagnosis

We have reported on the clinical usefulness of human telomerase reverse transcriptase ( hTERT ) mRNA quantification in sera in patients with several cancers. Positron emission tomography–computed tomography ( PET / CT ) using 18 F‐fluorodeoxyglucose ( FDG ) has recently become an excellent modality for detecting cancer. We performed a diagnostic comparative study of FDG ‐ PET / CT and hTERT mRNA quantification in patients with cancer. Four hundred seventy subjects, including 125 healthy individuals and 345 outpatients with cancer who had received medical treatments for cancer in their own or other hospitals, were enrolled. The subjects were diagnosed by FDG ‐ PET / CT , and we measured their serum hTERT mRNA levels using real‐time RT ‐ PCR , correlating the quantified values with the clinical course. In this prospective study, we statistically assessed the sensitivity and specificity, and their clinical significance. hTERT mRNA and FDG ‐ PET / CT were demonstrated to be correlated with the clinical parameters of metastasis and recurrence ( P