The Clinical Impact of 18F-FDG PET in Patients with Suspected or Confirmed Recurrence of Colorectal Cancer: A Prospective Study

This prospective study aimed to confirm, in a clinical setting, the benefits suggested by earlier retrospective studies of 18F-FDG PET scanning for the evaluation of patients with suspected recurrence of colorectal cancer. Methods: The referring oncol-ogist was asked to prospectively assign a treatment plan for 102 consecutive patients being evaluated by 18F-FDG PET for sus-pected or confirmed recurrence of colorectal cancer and with-out evidence of unresectable disease on conventional staging investigations, including CT. This treatment plan was then com-pared with that based on incremental information supplied by PET. Management changes were validated by follow-up. Re-sults: For 6 patients, the oncologist would not commit to a management plan without access to PET information, and for all these patients, PET correctly guided management. Of the re-maining 96 patients, the management plan for 54 (56%) wa