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Diagnostic accuracy of contrast-enhanced FDG-PET/CT in primary staging of cutaneous malignant melanoma

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European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of contrast-enhanced FDG-PET/CT (ce-PET/CT), PET-only, and CT-only in patients with newly diagnosed and resected cutaneous malignant melanoma.

Methods

A final group of 56 patients (mean age 62 years, range 23–86 years; 29 women, 27 men) were staged with ce-PET/CT after resection of the primary tumour. Histopathology as well as clinical follow-up (mean 780 days, range 102–1,390 days) served as the standards of reference. Differences between the staging modalities were tested for statistical significance with McNemar’s test.

Results

All imaging procedures provided low sensitivities in the detection of lymph nodes (sensitivity N-stage: PET/CT and PET-only 38.5%; CT-only 23.1%) and distant metastases (sensitivity M-stage: PET/CT 41.7%, PET-only 33.3%, CT-only 25.0%) in initial staging after resection of the primary tumour. No statistically significant differences were detected between the imaging procedures (p > 0.05). PET/CT resulted in an alteration in further treatment in two patients compared to PET-only and in four patients compared to CT-only.

Conclusion

All imaging modalities had a low sensitivity on initial staging of patients with malignant melanoma. Thus, close patient follow-up must be considered mandatory.

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Author notes

  1. Patrick Veit-Haibach

    Present address: Department of Medical Radiology, Division of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, Rämistrasse 100, 8091, Zurich, Switzerland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology, University Hospital Essen, Hufelandstrasse 55, 45122, Essen, Germany

    Patrick Veit-Haibach, Florian M. Vogt, Hilmar Kuehl & Gerald Antoch

  2. Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany

    Robert Jablonka

  3. Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany

    Andreas Bockisch, Thomas Beyer & Sandra Rosenbaum

  4. Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics, University at Luebeck, Luebeck, Germany

    Gerlinde Dahmen

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  1. Patrick Veit-Haibach
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Correspondence to Patrick Veit-Haibach.

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Veit-Haibach, P., Vogt, F.M., Jablonka, R. et al. Diagnostic accuracy of contrast-enhanced FDG-PET/CT in primary staging of cutaneous malignant melanoma. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 36, 910–918 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-008-1049-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-008-1049-x

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