The utility of [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography in thymic epithelial tumours†

OBJECTIVES: Positron emission tomography using [18F]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (18F-FDG-PET) plays an important role in many onco-logical settings. In this study, we assessed the utility of 18F-FDG PET-CT for predicting the histologic type and stage of thymic epithelial tumours. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 58 patients with thymic epithelial tumours who underwent PET–CT before treatment and investigated the relationship between the histologic type based on the World Health Organization classification and the maximum stan-dardized uptake value (SUVmax) of each tumour. We also analyzed the relationship between the Masaoka tumour stage and the SUVmax. RESULTS: The study included 31 males and 27 females, ranging in age from 25 to 80 years (median: 62 years). The tumour histology o