European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging
-
Eur. J. Nucl. Med. Mol. Imaging · Feb 2005
Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical TrialThe value of PET, CT and in-line PET/CT in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumours: long-term outcome of treatment with imatinib mesylate.
Gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) are mesenchymal neoplasms of the gastrointestinal tract that are unresponsive to standard sarcoma chemotherapy. Imaging of GIST patients is done with structural and functional methods such as contrast-enhanced helical computed tomography (ceCT) and positron emission tomography (PET) with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG). The aim of this study was to compare the prognostic power of PET and ceCT and to evaluate the clinical role of PET/CT imaging. ⋯ Both PET and PET/CT provide important prognostic information and have an impact on clinical decision-making in GIST patients. PET/CT precisely delineates lesions and thus allows for the correct planning of surgical interventions.