RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Technologist-Based Implementation of Total Metabolic Tumor Volume into Clinical Practice
JF Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
JO J. Nucl. Med. Technol.
FD Society of Nuclear Medicine
SP 57
OP 59
DO 10.2967/jnmt.122.264714
VO 51
IS 1
A1 Erina Quinn
A1 Claire Olson
A1 Manoj K. Jain
A1 Jaiden Sullivan
A1 Matthew P. Thorpe
A1 Geoffrey B. Johnson
A1 Jason R. Young
YR 2023
UL http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/51/1/57.abstract
AB Metabolic tumor volume (MTV) is defined as the total metabolically active tumor volume seen on 18F-FDG PET/CT examinations. Calculating MTV is often time-consuming, requiring a high degree of manual input. In this study, the MTV calculations of a board-certified nuclear radiologist were compared with those of 2 nuclear medicine technologists. As part of the technologists’ educational program, after their classroom time they were trained by the radiologist for 30 min. The technologists calculated MTV within 7.5% of the radiologist’s calculations in a set of patients who had diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and were undergoing initial staging 18F-FDG PET/CT. These findings suggest that nuclear medicine technologists may help accelerate implementation of MTV into clinical practice with favorable accuracy, possibly as an initial step followed by validation by the interpreting physician. The aim of this study was to explore whether efficiency is improved by integrating nuclear medicine technologists into a semiautomated workflow to calculate total MTV.