• Christian la Fougère, Walter Hundt, Nicole Bröckel, Thomas Pfluger, Alexander Haug, Bernhard Scher, Marcus Hacker, Klaus Hahn, Maximilan Reiser, and Reinhold Tiling.
• Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany. christian.lafougere@med.uni-muenchen.de
• Eur. J. Nucl. Med. Mol. Imaging. 2006 Dec 1; 33 (12): 1417-25.

PurposeThe aim of this study was to assess the clinical benefit of combined [(18)F]FDG PET/CT in patients with malignant lymphoma as compared to separately performed PET and CT.MethodsOverall, 100 patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD) or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) were included in this study. Co-registered PET/CT with [(18)F]FDG and contrast medium was performed in 50 consecutive patients with NHL (n=38) or HD (n=12) for initial staging (IS) (n=12) or re-treatment staging (RS) (n=38). Another 50 patients with NHL (n=32) or HD (n=18) underwent separate PET and CT investigations within a time frame of 10 days for IS (n=22) or RS (n=28). Lymphoma involvement was separately evaluated for seven different regions in each patient. Each patient had clinical follow-up evaluation for >6 months. PET and CT data were analysed separately as well as side-by-side or in fused mode.ResultsIn the PET/CT group, region-based evaluation for lymphoma involvement suggested a sensitivity/specificity of 85%/91% for CT, 98%/99% for PET and 98%/99% for PET/CT. In the PET and CT group, region-based evaluation showed a sensitivity/specificity of 87%/80% for CT, 98%/99% for PET and 98%/100% for PET and CT read side by side.ConclusionPET was superior to CT alone and was improved further by side-by-side reading of both examinations. However, no significant difference was observed between PET/CT and separate PET and CT imaging in patients with lymphoma.

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