2001 Volume 15 Issue 5 Pages 549-554
The purpose of this study was to clarify the validity of fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) in the evaluation of distant metastasis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). All metastatic lesions studied were confirmed clinically or histologically. FDG-PET detected 5 metastatic lesions in adrenal grand, 2 in liver, 1 in subcutaneous tissue, 1 in muscle. The size of the lesions ranged from 1 to 3 cm in diameter. Three of the 10 lesions were not diagnosed as metastatic with computed tomographic scan (CT). As to bone metastasis, true positive was 57% (4/7) in FDG-PET and 27% (4/15) in bone scintigraphy, respectively. We conclude that whole body FDG-PET is more useful than a combination of CT and bone scintigraphy to detect distant metastasis of lung cancer except for brain metastasis.
