Effectiveness of FDG-PET in screening of synchronous cancer of other organs in patients with esophageal cancer.

AIM: We investigated the significance of pre-treatment screening by (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography (FDG-PET) in patients with esophageal cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated the clinical significance of screening in 200 patients with primary esophageal cancer using FDG-PET.

RESULTS: Out of 200 patients, 34 (17%) had synchronous multiple primary tumors; 31 patients had two types of cancers (15.5%) and three patients had three types (1.5%). The 37 second and third primary tumors were 13 stomach cancers (35.1%), 13 head and neck cancers (35.1%), seven colon (18.9%) and two lung (5.4%) cancers. When PET was performed at initial treatment for esophageal cancer, the diagnostic sensitivity of FDG-PET/Computed tomography (CT) for the second and third synchronous primary cancer were 53.8% (7/13) for the stomach; head and neck, 61.5% (8/13); colon, 42.9% (3/7); and lung, 50% (1/2), for an overall sensitivity of 54.1% (20/37 sites).

CONCLUSION: FDG-PET/CT for patients with esophageal cancer may find both metastases from the primary esophageal cancer and other types of synchronous primary cancers.