Differences in gross tumor volumes for pancreatic cancer: a comparison of ungated positron emission tomography and contrast-enhanced four-dimensional computed tomography

Purpose We assessed differences in gross tumor volumes (GTVs) for pancreatic cancer between respiratory-ungated positron emission tomography (3D-PET) and contrast-enhanced four-dimensional computed tomography (CE-4DCT). Materials and methods We evaluated the GTVs in 21 patients. The sum of the GTVs, which was individually delineated by observers 1 and 2 on the CE-4DCT images from all respiratory phases, was used as GTV-4DCT. The GTVs on the 3D-PET images were extracted with three thresholds: 20%, 30%, and 40% of maximum activity concentration (GTV- n %). We selected one of the GTV- n %, which mostly resembled GTV-4DCT in size, as GTV-PET. Differences in the GTVs were analyzed. Results Median values of GTV-4DCT for observers 1, 2, and GTV-PET were 55.0 mL, 45.7 mL, and 14.6 mL, respectively. GTV-PET was smaller than GTV-4DCT for observers 1 and 2 ( p