Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine
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Posttreatment surveillance for the recurrence of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a diagnostic challenge. Tissue distortion from radiation and surgery can obscure early detection of recurrence by conventional follow-up approaches such as physical examination, CT, and MRI. Several studies have shown that 18F-FDG PET may be an effective technique for the detection of persistent, recurrent, and distant metastatic HNSCC after treatment. The aim of this prospective study was to determine the benefits of hybrid 18F-FDG PET/CT in detecting a subclinical locoregional recurrence of HNSCC and distant metastases. The study patients were considered cured of HNSCC on the basis of 12 mo of negative findings on conventional follow-up. We also assessed the diagnostic accuracy of 18F-FDG PET/CT in these patients. ⋯ The results of our study confirm the high effectiveness of 18F-FDG PET/CT in the assessment of HNSCC recurrence and suggest that 18F-FDG PET/CT is more accurate than conventional follow-up physical examination alone in the assessment of recurrence after previous curative treatment for HNSCC and could be proposed systematically at 12 mo of the usual follow-up.
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The purpose of this study was to determine the diagnostic value of 131I SPECT/spiral CT (SPECT/CT) on nodal staging of patients with thyroid carcinoma at the first ablative radioiodine therapy. ⋯ SPECT/CT determines lymph node involvement at radioablation performed for thyroid cancer more accurately than does planar imaging. SPECT/CT may alter management in roughly one quarter of patients with thyroid carcinoma by upstaging or downstaging their disease.