Research Article Open Access
Volume 7 • Issue 2 • 1000258
Chemotherapy, an open access journal
ISSN: 2167-7700
Open Access Research Article
Chemotherapy: Open Access
C
h
e
m
o
t
h
e
r
a
p
y
:
O
p
e
n
A
c
c
e
s
s
ISSN: 2167-7700
Kara et al., Chemotherapy 2018, 7:2
DOI: 10.4172/2167-7700.1000258
*Corresponding author: Pelin Ozcan Kara, Department of Nuclear Medicine,
Faculty of Medicine, Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey, Tel: 903242410000; Fax:
903242410098; E-mail: ppelinozcan@gmail.com
Received: May 28, 2018; Accepted: June 19, 2018; Published: June 25, 2018
Citation: Kara PO, Zehra Pinar KOC, Kara T, Kaya B, Aksoy T (2018) Is Dual-Time-
Point Imaging Necessary for Discrimination of Adrenal Benign Lesions Versus
Malignant Masses: A Study Comparing Standard Methods with Dual-Time-Point
FDG PET-CT Imaging. Chemotherapy 7: 258. doi:10.4172/2167-7700.1000258
Copyright: © 2018 Kara PO, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and
source are credited.
Keywords: Adrenal lesions; Malignant; Metastases; Lungs
Introduction
Te adrenal gland is one of the most common sites of metastases
afer the lungs, liver and bone. Discrimination of adrenal benign
lesions versus malignant masses is essential, especially in patients with
cancer, for choosing the appropriate treatment approach and assessing
prognosis. Maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) or tumor/
liver (T/L) SUV ratios per se are semiquantitative parameters that refect
metabolic activity, but are not specifc markers of malignancies. As the
uptake of 2-(18F) fuoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) in malignancies
is expected to increase over time, dual time point acquisition (DTPI)
could be potentially useful in partially overcoming the relatively low
specifcity of the SUVmax value. Benign and infamatory lesions
tend to maintain stable or reduce SUV over time whereas malignant
lesions show higher SUV values. Te impact of DTPI has been assessed
in various benign and malignant conditions however the clinical
usefulness is not assessed in adrenal lesions [1-3]. Tis retrospective
study was designed to investigate the clinical role of PET-CT DTPI
method to distinguish benign from malignant adrenal lesions in
various cancer patients and to compare the standart methods proposed
in the literature such as SUVmax value, T/L SUV ratio, visual analysis.
Materials and Methods
Patients
A total of 60 patients (34 male and 26 female, age range: 25-89,
mean: 60.7) were included. Primary malignancies of the patients were
demonstrated in Table 1. Patients with adrenal lesions on contrast
enhanced (CE) CT imaging were selected. Informed consent was taken
from all patients. Patients were grouped as benign adrenal group (I),
malignant adrenal group (II) and dual-phase-group (III).
Is Dual-Time-Point Imaging Necessary for Discrimination of Adrenal
Benign Lesions Versus Malignant Masses: A Study Comparing Standard
Methods with Dual-Time-Point FDG PET-CT Imaging
Pelin Ozcan Kara
1
*, Zehra Pinar KOC
1
, Taylan Kara
2
, Bugra Kaya
3
and Tamer Aksoy
4
1
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey
2
Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Mersin University, Mersin, Turkey
3
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Necmeddin Erbakan University, Turkey
4
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Okmeydani Education and Research Hospital, İstanbul, Turkey
Abstract
Objectives: This retrospective study was designed to investigate the clinical role of FDG PET-CT, for the evaluation
of adrenal lesions and to compare the standart methods with dual-time-point imaging (DTPI) method to distinguish
benign from malignant lesions in various cancer patients.
Materials and methods: A total of 60 patients with confrmed primary malignancies underwent PET-CT
examinations. Of the 60 patients, 79 adrenal lesions (36 benign and 43 malignant adrenal lesions) were shown by CT.
Patients were grouped as benign adrenal group (I), malignant adrenal group (II) and dual-phase-group (III).
Results: A total of 20 (33%) patients were included in benign adrenal group (Group I) with 28 adrenal lesions. Mean
SUVmax value 2.95 were evaluated. All adrenal lesions in Group I had SUVmax value below cut-off 4.2 except 2.
A total of 19 (32%) patients were included in malignant adrenal group (Group II) with 22 adrenal lesions. Mean
SUVmax value 8.16 were evaluated. All adrenal lesions in Group II had SUVmax value over cut-off 4.2 except 2.
A total of 21 (35%) patients were included in dual phase adrenal group (Group III) with 29 adrenal lesions. For
malignant adrenal lesions in group III, all of the 21 malign lesions showed increased FDG uptake and SUVmax value
in late imaging.
Conclusion: Dual time point imaging of PET-CT seems to be very effective especially in adrenal lesions, addition
of dual phase study routinely is not necessary and recommented in only indeterminated lesions.
Primary lesion No. of patients
Lung cancer 36
Gastrointestinal malignancies 4
Malignant melanoma 1
Geitourinary malignancies 4
Brain 1
Breast carcinoma 6
Gynecological Malignancies 3
Head and Neck Primary 1
Primary Surrenal 2
Lymphoma 1
Leiomyosarcoma 1
Table 1: 18F-FDG PET/CT Indications.