M. Mukai et al., Preoperative evaluation by whole-body F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography in patients with primary colorectal cancer, ONCOL REP, 7(1), 2000, pp. 85-87
Whole-body positron emission tomography (WB PET) was performed preoperative
ly in 24 patients with primary colorectal cancer, and the results were comp
ared with the histopathological findings. The PET positive rate was 95.8% (
23/24 patients) for the primary tumor. Among nine patients with histologica
lly confirmed lymph node metastasis, two (22.2%) were positive by PET, incl
uding one with nl and one with n4 disease. Among 15 patients without lymph
node metastasis histopathologically (n0), two (13.3%) showed false-positive
nodes on PET, being diagnosed as nl and n3 disease, respectively. These re
sults suggest that preoperative PET is useful for the diagnosis of primary
colorectal cancer, but it is of limited value for detecting metastasis to t
he regional lymph nodes surrounding the primary lesion.