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Integrated PET/CT system for staging and surveillance of skull base tumors
Author(s) -
Gil Ziv,
EvenSapir Einat,
Margalit Nevo,
Fliss Dan M.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/hed.20545
Subject(s) - medicine , skull , radiology , positron emission tomography , osteoradionecrosis , stage (stratigraphy) , nuclear medicine , predictive value , tomography , radiation therapy , surgery , paleontology , biology
Background. The utility of preoperative and postoperative whole body integrated positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET‐CT) scanning for staging and follow‐up in patients with skull base tumors is undetermined. Methods. We prospectively evaluated PET‐CT findings in 47 patients using 57 scans. Most (35/47, 75%) had anterior skull base tumors and the majority (74%) had advanced‐stage (III–IV) disease. Results. The scans showed high sensitivity for detection of various types of malignant tumors and provided 39 items of additional information, changing the clinical staging and management of 11 patients (23%). Recurrence of primary tumors was detected in 8 patients, positive regional (neck) metastases in 3, and distant metastases in 3. The positive uptake was due to osteoradionecrosis in 2 other patients. The sensitivity of PET‐CT was 0.77 and the specificity was 0.81 (0.83 positive predictive value and 0.76 negative predictive value). Conclusions. PET‐CT provides accurate data on anatomy, tumor staging, and early disease recurrence in the skull base. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 2007