Early diagnosis and evaluation of therapy in postoperative recurrent cervical cancers by positron emission tomography

Positron emission tomography (PET) using 2-[F-18] fluoro-2 deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) was performed on two uterine cervical cancer patients in whom recurre nt tumors, one pelvic and the other at the vaginal wall had not been precis ely diagnosed using the usual imaging examinations. One recurrence was conf irmed by the acccumulation of FDG to the pelvic mass as detected by magneti c resonance imaging (MRI). During chemotherapy, changes in FDG-PET findings were detected earlier than those in MRI. In the other, PET detected a recu rrent tumor that could not be found by MRI, and was also useful for evaluat ing chemotherapeutic effects. These cases suggest that PET with FDG can be a useful examination not only for diagnosing recurrent cervical cancer afte r radical hysterectomy, especially pelvic recurrence, but also for evaluati ng chemotherapeutic effects on recurrent cancers.