BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of death, and necessitates a conjointly performed staging. Until now, a multi-step-examination including optical colonoscopy, cross-sectional and functional imaging is recommended. However, a single examination for whole-body staging with a dedicated CRC staging protocol is desirable. Thus, we developed and evaluated a combined whole-body PET/CT-colonography protocol for dedicated CRC staging in routine clinical use. METHODS: We integrated CT-colonography into a whole-body PET/CT protocol to achieve a specific "all-in-one" examination for patients suspected of having CRC. After oral and rectal bowel distension, PET/CT-colonography has been performed in 55 patients. All patients had optical colonoscopy one day before PET/CT. PET/CT data sets were evaluated concerning detection and evaluation of colorectal tumour sites, lymph nodes and distant metastases; these results were compared to the results of CT-colonography alone. Surgical resection and/or biopsy served as standards of reference in all patients. RESULTS: All examinations were fully diagnostic and well tolerated by the patients. PET/CT-colonography showed highly accurate results for overall TNM-evaluation and was significantly more accurate than CT-colonography alone. CONCLUSIONS: Staging patients with whole-body PET/CT-colonography is technically feasible and accurate. Patients with incomplete colonoscopy or potential synchronous bowel lesions might benefit from this approach.
BACKGROUND:Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of death, and necessitates a conjointly performed staging. Until now, a multi-step-examination including optical colonoscopy, cross-sectional and functional imaging is recommended. However, a single examination for whole-body staging with a dedicated CRC staging protocol is desirable. Thus, we developed and evaluated a combined whole-body PET/CT-colonography protocol for dedicated CRC staging in routine clinical use. METHODS: We integrated CT-colonography into a whole-body PET/CT protocol to achieve a specific "all-in-one" examination for patients suspected of having CRC. After oral and rectal bowel distension, PET/CT-colonography has been performed in 55 patients. All patients had optical colonoscopy one day before PET/CT. PET/CT data sets were evaluated concerning detection and evaluation of colorectal tumour sites, lymph nodes and distant metastases; these results were compared to the results of CT-colonography alone. Surgical resection and/or biopsy served as standards of reference in all patients. RESULTS: All examinations were fully diagnostic and well tolerated by the patients. PET/CT-colonography showed highly accurate results for overall TNM-evaluation and was significantly more accurate than CT-colonography alone. CONCLUSIONS: Staging patients with whole-body PET/CT-colonography is technically feasible and accurate. Patients with incomplete colonoscopy or potential synchronous bowel lesions might benefit from this approach.
Authors: D R McArthur; H Mehrzad; R Patel; J Dadds; A Pallan; S S Karandikar; S Roy-Choudhury Journal: Eur Radiol Date: 2009-09-02 Impact factor: 5.315
Authors: G P Schmidt; A Baur-Melnyk; A Haug; S Utzschneider; C R Becker; R Tiling; M F Reiser; K A Hermann Journal: Eur Radiol Date: 2009-02-04 Impact factor: 5.315