Survey Shows PET Influence on Medical Treatment

In a survey designed to explore the impact of positron emission tomography (PET) in a typical clinical setting, researchers found that the use of PET changed the disease management of more than 60% of colorectal cancer patients. Moreover, 41% of all patients initially scheduled for surgery avoided surgery by having their treatment changed. The survey was published in the April 6 issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

The researchers surveyed 60 doctors, of which 53% were oncologists, 27% surgeons, 15% general practitioners, and 2% radiation oncologists. The doctors referred 146 patients with colorectal cancer. In addition to the change in clinical management, doctors reported that the PET scan had changed the clinical stage for 42% of patients, with 80% being upstaged and 20% being downstaged. Patients undergoing the scan were injected with the radiopharmaceutical fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) about 45 minutes before the scan. Areas in which cancer was present showed up more brightly on the scan.

"This survey is important because it shows how PET, in real-life care situations, has a profound impact on the actual practice of medicine, and particularly on the lives of people with colorectal cancer,” said Dr. Johannes Czernin, department of molecular and medical pharmacology, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA, USA), one of the researchers. The survey was conducted at UCLA and the Northern California PET Imaging Center.




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Society of Nuclear Medicine