The role of FDG-PET in staging of lymphoma and evaluation of therapeutic efficiency

To evaluate the application of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) to the staging and detecting residual masses of lymphoma. The clinical data of 179 patients with lymphoma were analyzed retrospectively. The results of FDG-PET, computed tomography (CT) and bone marrow biopsy (BMB) were compared for detection of lymph node/extranodal lymphoid tissue and bone marrow infiltration. Therapeutic efficiency was assessed by International Workshop Criteria (IWC) and Revised Integrated International Workshop Criteria (IWC + PET). In the detection of 286 disease focuses in 98 patients before chemotherapy, the sensitivities of FDG-PET and CT were 73% and 70% (P < 0.01) in detecting nodal focus,and 87% and 45% (P < 0.01) in detecting extranodal lymphoma respectively. In detection of 104 lesions in 81 patients after chemotherapy,the sensitivities of FDG-PET and CT were 81% and 55% respectively (P < 0.01), and the specificities were 68% and 33%, respectively (P < 0.01) in detecting residual masses.