European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging
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Eur. J. Nucl. Med. Mol. Imaging · Aug 2004
Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical TrialComparison of 11C-choline PET and FDG PET for the differential diagnosis of malignant tumors.
We prospectively assessed and compared the usefulness of 11C-choline positron emission tomography (PET) with that of [18F]-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) PET for the differentiation between benign and malignant tumors. A total of 126 patients with 130 lesions were studied (25 brain tumors, 51 head and neck tumors, 15 bone tumors, 16 lung tumors, and 23 soft tissue tumors). 11C-choline PET and FDG PET were performed from 5 and 40 min, respectively, after injection of 275-370 MBq tracer. PET data were evaluated using the standardized uptake value (SUV) and were analyzed in accordance with the pathologic data. ⋯ In brain, head and neck, bone, and soft tissue tumors, 11C-choline showed higher contrast than FDG. In conclusion, it is feasible to use 11C-choline PET for differentiation between malignant and benign tumours, especially of the brain, head and neck, bone, and soft tissue. However, attention needs to be drawn to the high uptake of 11C-choline in some benign tumors and tumour-like lesions, as this will be of significance in clinical practice.