Utility of Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography Imaging in The Management of Patients with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

Abstract

Introduction: Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma is the most common hematologic malignancy worldwide, accounting for a significant portion of all lymphomas. Because FDG PET/CT can give accurate, non-invasive anatomical and functional data, it has recently become the standard clinical management imaging modality. Objective: To determine the role that positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) performs in the initial staging and evaluation of treatment response in NHL patients. Patient and Methods: This was A retrospective cross-sectional monocentric observational study in which 109 patients where the diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma have been pathologically confirmed. All patients were examined using Siemens Bio-graph true point PET/CT scanner. These dedicated systems integrate a PET scanner with multi-slice helical CT scanners permit the acquisition of co-registered CT and PET images in one session. Results: Most of the samples were male, amounting to 68.5%. with a mean age of 43.43±15.03 years old. PET/CT detected 109 total involved different sites with sensitivity 94 %, specificity 87%, and accuracy 98 % which was larger than sites detected by CT. Regarding to treatment response assessment, PET/CT detected complete regression (83.5%), partial regression (17 %) stationary course (0.9%) and progression (0 %) while CT detected complete regression (80.7%), partial regression (18.3 %) stationary course (0.9%) progression (0%). Conclusion: Compared to CT, PET/CT showed better sensitivity and specificity. PET/CT's primary advantage was its improved capacity to identify additional lymphoma nodal sites and rule out active disease in nodal mass lesions that remained after follow-up.