Role of PET/CT in initial evaluation of lymphoma patients

Abstract

Abstract Background Accurate radiologic assessment of treatment response in lymphoma patients is important to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment and consequently predict the relapse; the value of PET/CT for post-treatment prognosis prediction has been recently investigated. The aim of this study is to highlight the prognostic value of PET-CT metabolic volumetric parameters in the evaluation of lymphoma patients. Results Among the included 40 patients, post-treatment SUV, MTV, and TLG were significantly lower in a responsive group than the non-responsive group. % changes of all quantitative PET/CT parameters were significantly higher in the responsive group than the non-responsive group. Conclusions This study suggests that pre-treatment PET/CT quantitative measures (except baseline SUVmax) are not conclusive in the prediction of patient response to treatment; however, the ΔSUVmax, ΔMTV, and ΔTLG% from the baseline to the end of therapy could be used in predicting patient response to treatment, determining patient prognosis, and suggesting the relapse.

Keywords

• Hodgkin lymphoma
• Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• 18F FDG PET/CT
• PERCIST
• CMR
• PMR