VALUE OF (18)FLUORO-DEOXYGLUCOSE POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY IN THE STAGING OF RECURRENT BREAST-CARCINOMA

The aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of staging recurr ent breast carcinoma employing fluorine-18-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (F DG) position emission tomography (PET) under routine clinical conditio ns. In 75 patients with suspected recurrent or metastastic disease, wh ole-body FDG-PET was performed and results correlated with morphologic al imaging (CT/MRI) data and verified by histological findings. FDG-PE T correctly identified 16 patients with local recurrence, 28 with lymp h node involvement, 15 with bone, 5 with lung and 2 with liver metasta ses. CT/MRI identified 10 patients with focal recurrences, 17 with lym ph node involvement, 6 with bone, 5 with lung and 2 with liver metasta ses. FDG-PET detected 6 local recurrences, 8 lymph node, and 7 bone me tastases, which were not visualized by CT/MRI. Our data provide the ba sis for use of FDG-PET in the whole-body restaging of recurrent breast carcinoma in preselected-patients under routine clinical conditions.