Diagnostic and therapeutic impact of 18F-FDG-PET/CT in patients with suspected breast cancer recurrence

Abstract

Breast cancer is a tumor with high prevalence in our environment. Thus, it is essential to make an early diagnosis in both the primary disease and its recurrence, given the high mortality of the cases with the advanced disease. Our study has aimed to evaluate the impact of ¹⁸F-FDG-PET/CT in patients with suspected breast cancer recurrence and their therapeutic management.

This study analyzed the PET/CT of 70 patients with a background of breast cancer and suspicion of recurrence, either because of elevation of tumor markers (n=28), doubtful findings on other imaging techniques (n=56) and/or suspicious symptoms (n=1).

All the patients underwent a standard FDG-PET study acquired in combination with low-dose CT.

The studies were considered pathological in 34 of the 70 patients, with 29 true positive, 32 true negative, 5 false positive and 4 false negative results. The final diagnosis was established either by histopathologic confirmation (n=17), other imaging techniques (n=26) and/or clinical radiological follow-up (n=27, mean 12.7 months). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive values obtained were 87.8%, 86.4%, 85.2% and 88.8%, respectively. Therapeutic management was modified in 41% of the patients.

In conclusion, PET/CT is a technique with high diagnostic yield in patients with suspected breast cancer recurrence.