Oncologic PET Registry Data Confirm FDG-PET has Major Impact on Management of Cancer Patient Care

A new study analyzed data regarding nearly 23,000 patients contributed to a U.S. oncologic PET registry by more than 1200 facilities in the United States providing positron emission tomography (PET) scans.

Clinicians changed the intended care of more than one in three cancer patients as the result of fluorodeoxyglucose- (FDG)-PET scan findings, according to a study of data from the U.S. National Oncologic PET Registry (NOPR), published online March 24, 2008, in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).

Sponsored by the Academy of Molecular Imaging (AMI; Los Angeles, CA, USA) and managed by the American College of Radiology (ACR; Philadelphia, PA, USA) and American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN), the NOPR was designed to collect questionnaire data from referring physicians on intended patient management before and after an FDG-PET scan.

The NOPR-participating PET facility collected from referring physicians both a pre-PET questionnaire (documenting study indication, cancer type and anticipated stage, and planned management if PET were not available) and one of several post-PET questionnaires that assessed the referring physician's planned management in light of the FDG-PET findings.

Analysis of data collected found that FDG-PET is associated with a 36.5% change in the decision of whether or how to treat a patient's cancer. NOPR working group co-chair R. Edward Coleman, M.D., professor of radiology and chief of the division of nuclear medicine at Duke University School of Medicine (Durham, NC, USA) and an AMI founding member, commented, "We were especially surprised by the impact of the PET findings on patients who were originally planned to have a biopsy. The procedure was avoided in approximately three-quarters of these patients.”

FDG-PET, is an imaging modality that images the function of cells to show differences between healthy tissue and diseased tissue. It uses a small amount of a radioactive chemical, which is combined with glucose. This combination is called FDG, and is used to evaluate various neurologic and cardiac disorders, as well as for diagnosing, staging, and monitoring the treatment of many different cancers.


Related Links:
National Oncologic PET Registry
Virginia Commonwealth University
American College of Radiology Imaging Network