Korean J Nucl Med.  1999 Dec;33(6):502-511.

Differential Diagnosis of Breast Mass and Staging of Breast Cancer Using F-18-FDG PET

• Yeo JS
• Lee DS
• Kang KW
• Noh DY
• Chung JK
• Lee MC

Abstract

PURPOSE: F-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) has been proven to be useful in the differential diagnosis of breast mass and staging of breast cancer. This study assessed the diagnostic accuracy of F-18-FDG PET in the differentiation of breast mass and staging of breast cancer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Total 42 patients who had breast mass underwent F-18-FDG PET (all female, 40+/-10 year old). We compared F-18 FDG PET
results
with pathologic findings in 24 patients
RESULTS
In the differentiation of breast mass, sensitivity and specificity were 95% (19/20) and 77% (7/9) respectively. Three false positive cases were due to inflammation and one false negative patient had small tumor less than 1 cm. In the assessment of axillary lymph node status, sensitivity and specificity were 73% (8/11) and 100% (7/7) respectively. We found distant metastasis that were not suspected before F-18-FDG PET in 2 patients.
CONCLUSION
F-18-FDG PET shows good diagnostic performance in differentiation of breast mass and staging of breast cancer.

Keyword

Breast cancer; F-18 FDG PET

MeSH Terms

Breast Neoplasms*
Breast*
Diagnosis, Differential*
Female
Humans
Inflammation
Lymph Nodes
Neoplasm Metastasis
Positron-Emission Tomography
Sensitivity and Specificity