Prevalence of occult metastatic disease in patients undergoing 18F-FDG PET for primary diagnosis or staging of lung carcinoma and solitary pulmonary nodules

Abstract

Background: Accurate staging of lung cancer is essential in determining the most appropriate management plan, as detection of occult metastasis can significantly alter management. Aims: The aims of this study are to determine the prevalence of occult metastasis in patients undergoing 2- 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) for evaluation of suspected/proven lung carcinoma and correlate pre-PET TNM stage with prevalence of metastasis. Methods: FDG-PET, which identified patients with metastasis on institutional database, was re-evaluated by a nuclear medicine physician blinded to clinical information. The confidence level of metastasis was scored on a 5-poi..