Value of 18fluoro-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography in the staging of recurrent breast carcinoma.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of staging recurrent breast carcinoma employing fluorine-18-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) under routine clinical conditions. In 75 patients with suspected recurrent or metastatic disease, whole-body FDG-PET was performed and results correlated with morphological imaging (CT/MRI) data and verified by histological findings. FDG-PET correctly identified 16 patients with local recurrence, 28 with lymph node involvement, 15 with bone, 5 with lung and 2 with liver metastases. CT/MRI identified 10 patients with local recurrences, 17 with lymph node involvement, 6 with bone, 5 with lung and 1 with liver metastases. FDG-PET detected 6 local recurrences, 8 lymph node, and 7 bone metastases, which were not visualized by CT/MRI. Our data provide the basis for use of FDG-PET in the whole-body restaging of recurrent breast carcinoma in preselected patients under routine clinical conditions.