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Abstract

PURPOSE:

To prospectively investigate the diagnostic accuracy of [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) with dual-time-point imaging, contrast-enhanced CT (ceCT), and bone scintigraphy (BS) in patients with suspected breast cancer recurrence.

PATIENTS AND METHODS:

One hundred women with suspected recurrence of breast cancer underwent 1-hour and 3-hour FDG-PET/CT, ceCT, and BS within approximately 10 days. The study was powered to estimate the precision of the individual imaging tests. Images were visually interpreted using a four-point assessment scale, and readers were blinded to other test results. The reference standard was biopsy along with treatment decisions and clinical follow-up (median, 17 months).

RESULTS:

FDG-PET/CT resulted in no false negatives and fewer false positives than the other imaging techniques. Accuracy of results were similar for 1-hour and 3-hour FDG-PET/CT. For distant recurrence, the area under the receiver operating curve was 0.99 (95% CI, 0.97 to 1) for FDG-PET/CT, 0.84 (95% CI, 0.73 to 0.94) for ceCT, and 0.86 (95% CI, 0.77 to 0.94) for the combined ceCT+BS. Of 100 patients, 22 (22%) were verified with distant recurrence, and 18 of these had bone involvement. Nineteen patients (19%) had local recurrence only. In exploratory analyses, diagnostic accuracy of FDG-PET/CT was better than ceCT alone or ceCT combined with BS in diagnosing distant, bone, and local recurrence, shown by a greater area under the receiver operating curve and higher sensitivity, specificity, and superior likelihood ratios.

CONCLUSION:

FDG-PET/CT was accurate in diagnosing recurrence in breast cancer patients. It allowed for distant recurrence to be correctly ruled out and resulted in only a small number of false-positive cases. Exploratory findings suggest that FDG-PET/CT has greater accuracy than conventional imaging technologies in this patient group. 

Author information

Hildebrandt MG1, Gerke O2, Baun C2, Falch K2, Hansen JA2, Farahani ZA2, Petersen H2, Larsen LB2, Duvnjak S2, Buskevica I2, Bektas S2, Søe K2, Jylling AM2, Ewertz M2, Alavi A2, Høilund-Carlsen PF2.​

1Malene Grubbe Hildebrandt, Oke Gerke, Christina Baun, Kirsten Falch, Jeanette Ansholm Hansen, Ziba Ahangarani Farahani, Henrik Petersen, Lisbet Brønsro Larsen, Sandra Duvnjak, Inguna Buskevica, Selma Bektas, Katrine Søe, Anne Marie Bak Jylling, Marianne Ewertz, and Poul Flemming Høilund-Carlsen, Odense University Hospital; Oke Gerke and Marianne Ewertz, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark; and Abass Alavi, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Malene.grubbe.hildebrandt@rsyd.dk.

2Malene Grubbe Hildebrandt, Oke Gerke, Christina Baun, Kirsten Falch, Jeanette Ansholm Hansen, Ziba Ahangarani Farahani, Henrik Petersen, Lisbet Brønsro Larsen, Sandra Duvnjak, Inguna Buskevica, Selma Bektas, Katrine Søe, Anne Marie Bak Jylling, Marianne Ewertz, and Poul Flemming Høilund-Carlsen, Odense University Hospital; Oke Gerke and Marianne Ewertz, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark; and Abass Alavi, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.