FDG PET/CT in cancer: comparison of actual use with literature-based recommendations

PET/CT Task Force of the Region of Southern Denmark

45 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

PURPOSE: The Region of Southern Denmark (RSD), covering 1.2 of Denmark's 5.6 million inhabitants, established a task force to (1) retrieve literature evidence for the clinical use of positron emission tomography (PET)/CT and provide consequent recommendations and further to (2) compare the actual use of PET/CT in the RSD with these recommendations. This article summarizes the results.

METHODS: A Work Group appointed a professional Subgroup which made Clinician Groups conduct literature reviews on six selected cancers responsible for 5,768 (62.6 %) of 9,213 PET/CT scans in the RSD in 2012. Rapid Evidence Assessment was applied, using the methodology of systematic reviews with predefined limitations to search PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Library for articles published in English/Danish/Swedish/Norwegian since 2002. PICO questions were defined, data recorded and quality appraised and rated with regard to strength and evidence level. Consequent recommendations for applications of PET/CT were established. The actual use of PET/CT was compared with these, where grades A and B indicated "established" and "useful" and grades C and D "potentially useful" and "non-recommendable" indications, respectively.

RESULTS: Of 11,729 citations, 1,729 were considered for review, and 204 were included. The evidence suggested usefulness of PET/CT in lung, lymphoma, melanoma, head and neck, and colorectal cancers, whereas evidence was sparse in gynaecological cancers. The agreement between actual use of PET/CT and literature-based recommendations was high in the first five mentioned cancers in that 96.2 % of scans were made for grade A or B indications versus only 22.2 % in gynaecological cancers.

CONCLUSION: Evidence-based usefulness was reported in five of six selected cancers; evidence was sparse in the sixth, gynaecological cancers. Actual use of PET/CT agreed well with recommendations.

Original languageEnglish
JournalEuropean Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
Volume43
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)695-706
Number of pages12
ISSN1619-7070
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2016

Keywords

  • Denmark
  • Fluorodeoxyglucose F18
  • Humans
  • Multimodal Imaging/statistics & numerical data
  • Neoplasms/diagnostic imaging
  • Positron-Emission Tomography/statistics & numerical data
  • Practice Guidelines as Topic
  • Radiopharmaceuticals
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed/statistics & numerical data

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