This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
PET/MR improved detection of metastases in breast cancer
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
SAN FRANCISCO — Whole-body PET/MR improved the detection of metastases and reduced the occurrence of false positives compared with PET/CT imaging, according to study results presented at the Breast Cancer Symposium.
Eleonora Teplinsky, MD, of Langone Medical Center in New York, and colleagues compared PET/CT with the new hybrid technology PET/MR, which delivers less radiation, according to background information provided by researchers.
The analysis included 48 patients with breast cancer who underwent imaging for the detection of metastases (n=28), for staging (n=5) or to rule out recurrence (n=15). The median age of patients was 55 years (range, 32-79).
The majority of patients (n=31; 64.5%) had ER-positive, HER-2–negative disease; eight patients (20%) had ER-positive, HER-2–positive disease; two patients (5%) had ER-negative, HER-2–negative disease; and six patients (15%) had ER-negative, HER-2–positive disease. One patient had an unknown disease subtype.
Twenty patients did not have metastases. Among the remaining 28 patients, there were nine liver, 18 bone, seven lung/pleura, five brain and 10 lymph node metastases detected as the reference standard by two radiologists who were not blinded to imaging and pathology reports. There were six liver, 21 bone, nine lung/pleura, 11 lymph node and zero brain metastases detected by PET/CT.
When patients underwent PET/MR imaging, researchers identified two bone, three liver, two lymph node and five brain metastases in 10 patients that were not detected by PET/CT. These included one liver and two brain metastases that were previously unknown.
Researchers determined five bone, three lung/pleura and three lymph node metastases detected by PET/CT were false positives. PET/MR imaging detected one false-positive liver metastasis.
“Our preliminary data suggest that PET/MR outperformed PET/CT in detecting metastases in the liver, brain, lymph node and possibly bone,” Teplinsky and colleagues wrote. “Prospective studies of PET/MR are warranted to determine whether early detection of metastases, including occult brain metastases in HER-2–positive patients, impacts survival.”
For more information:
Teplinsky E. Abstract #15. Presented at: Breast Cancer Symposium; Sept. 4-6, 2014; San Francisco.
Disclosure: The researchers report leadership and consultant/advisory roles with, travel expenses from and royalties on patents licensed to Genentech/Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Myriad Genetics, Novartis, Samus Therapeutics and Viatar CTC Solutions.