WHOLE-BODY F-18 FLUORODEOXYGLUCOSE POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY IN PREOPERATIVE EVALUATION OF LUNG-CANCER

Despite use of computed tomography, some lung cancer patients are found to have unresectable disease at surgery, or they present early with metastases. We studied whether whole-body -positron emission tomography (PET) with F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)FDG) would improve the preoperative detection of metastases. We retrospectively analysed 34 patients with ''operable'' non-small-cell lung cancer who underwent (18)FDG PET after routine assessment. Management changes produced by the PET scan and confirmatory tests were reviewed. PET unsuspected malignant lesions in 10 (29%) Management changes occurred in 14 (41%), including 6 (18%) patients who were changed to non-surgical therapy. These data suggest that whole-body (18)FDG PET improves preoperative assessment of lung cancer patients.