PET/CT restaging alters breast cancer management

FDG-PET/CT's power for staging and restaging breast cancer is attracting attention. It could also detect recurrence in more than two-thirds of these patients and change the management plan in up to a third, according to German investigators.

Dr. Michael Souvatzoglou and colleagues in the nuclear medicine department at the Technical University of Munich prospectively enrolled 118 patients with suspicion of breast cancer recurrence based on elevated tumor markers, clinical signs, and abnormal standard imaging studies. PET/CT identified local and metastatic disease in 79 cases.

Follow-up data on 87 patients showed that a change in therapeutic management was made for 29 patients (33%) based on PET/CT findings. Changes included initiation of chemotherapy in 14, initiation of radiotherapy in 12, and initiation of chemoradiotherapy in three. Souvatzoglou presented his group's results at the 2008 SNM.