Role of PET/CT in patients with unexplained rising alpha fetoprotein post HCC interventional management

Background Positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET/CT) is considered a powerful modality in the follow-up of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. In this study, PET/CT was done in an evaluation of patients with unexplained rising alpha fetoprotein (AFP) post hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) interventional management in 40 patients (16 females and 24 males); their age ranged from 25 to 82 years, had undergone interventional management for HCC and underwent PET/CT follow-up within an 8-month duration from their intervention. Whole-body PET/CT was performed after injection of (18)-FDG, and the results were read in a masked manner by two specialists, and diagnostic performance was assessed from the results of consensus masked reading. All the results were evaluated with the Barcelona criteria and biopsy correlation. Results During the follow-up PET/CT, 24 patients had complete response and 8 patients showed focal residual while the rest 8 patients showed newly developed lesions. Conclusion PET/CT is an excellent method for the evaluation of HCC patients with equivocal results after interventional management.