Post-therapy surveillance of patients with uterine cancers: value of integrated FDG PET/CT in the detection of recurrence

Purpose The purpose of this study was to prospectively determine the diagnostic accuracy of PET/CT in the detection of recurrence in patients with treated uterine cancers. Methods Twenty-five women, ranging in age from 37 to 79 years (mean 58.9 years), who underwent primary surgical treatment for either a cervical or an endometrial cancer met the inclusion criterion of the study, which was suspicion of recurrence based on results of routine follow-up procedures. PET/CT was performed after administration of F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG); two readers interpreted the images in consensus. Histopathological findings or correlation with results of subsequent clinical and imaging follow-up examinations served as the reference standard. Diagnostic accuracy of PET/CT was reported in terms of the proportion of correctly classified patients and lesion sites. Results Tumour recurrence was found at histopathological analysis or follow-up examinations after PET/CT in 14 (56%) of the 25 patients. Patient-based sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of PET/CT for detection of tumour recurrence were 92.9%, 100.0%, 100.0%, 91.7% and 96.0%, respectively. Lesion site-based sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of PET/CT were 94.7%, 99.5%, 94.7%, 99.5% and 99.0%, respectively. Conclusion This preliminary study shows that PET/CT may be an accurate method for the evaluation of recurrence in patients who have been treated for uterine cancers and are undergoing follow-up.