Ann Surg Treat Res.  2020 Apr;98(4):184-189. 10.4174/astr.2020.98.4.184.

The efficacy of 18F-FDG PET/CT in the preoperative evaluation of pancreatic lesions

• Akcam AT
• Teke Z
• Saritas AG
• Ulku A
• Guney IB
• Rencuzogullari A

• KMID: 2500818
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4174/astr.2020.98.4.184

Abstract

Purpose
Since the treatment strategy for benign and malignant pancreatic lesions differ, we aimed to evaluate the clinical value of PET/CT in the diagnosis and management of pancreatic lesions.
Methods
Ninety patients who had a histologically confirmed pancreatic lesion were studied. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to investigate the ability of PET/CT to differentiate malignant lesions from benign tumors.
Results
The malignant and benign groups comprised 64 and 26 patients, respectively. Despite the similarity in the size of primary tumors (P = 0.588), the mean maximum standardized uptake values (SUVmax) obtained from PET/CT imaging were significantly higher in malignant lesions (9.36 ± 5.9) than those of benign tumors (1.04 ± 2.6, P < 0.001). ROC analysis showed that the optimal SUVmax cutoff value for differentiating malignant lesions (to an accuracy of 91%; 95% confidence interval, 83%–98%) from benign tumors was 3.9 (sensitivity, 92.2%; specificity, 84.6%).
Conclusion
PET/CT evaluation of pancreatic lesions confers advantages including fine assessment of malignant potential with high sensitivity and accuracy using a threshold SUVmax value of 3.9.

Keyword

Chronic pancreatitis; Pancreas; Pancreatic neoplasms; Pancreatic pseudocyst; Positron emission tomography computed tomography

Figure

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  Fig. 1 PET/CT images of chronic pancreatitis patients with increased maximum standardized uptake values (SUVmax). (A) SUVmax: 7.95. (B) SUVmax: 9.3.

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  Fig. 2 Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for differentiating benign and malignant pancreatic lesions.

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