The role of positron emission tomography in the evaluation and staging of patients with recurrent colorectal carcinomas.

Background - Positron emission tomography (PET) has been shown useful for t he staging of patients with various carcinomas. Methods - We have applied this technique to 54 cases of colorectal carcinom a and compared it to conventional imaging techniques. Results - PET had moderately higher sensitivity and specificity than conven tional techniques to detect individual lesion sites (75% vs 70.8% and 63% v s 21% respectively). It detected the same number of patients with recurrenc es (35/39) but overestimated disease less frequently (5 cases vs 12). PET f avorably influenced therapeutic management in 17 patients, indicating diffe rent or additional surgery in 9 while avoiding surgery with curative intent or unnecessary surgery in 8. In 5 cases, erroneous information provided by PET could be corrected by conventional imaging techniques. Conclusion - We conclude that PET appears to provide complementary informat ion useful for staging patients with colorectal carcinomas. It can signific antly modify patients management. These data should be confirmed by a prosp ective study.