Evaluation of clinical value of PET-CT in pulmonary carcinoid

Abstract

Objective To assess the performance of PET-CT in pulmonary carcinoid and to evaluate the efficacy of lymph node metastasis. Methods We retrospectively collected the data of 33 patients with primary pulmonary carcinoid in our center between November 2008 and March 2017. The results of PET-CT were analysed and the relationship among pathological subtype, tumor size and SUVmax was compared. Results Thirty-three patients had a diagnosis of carcinoid tumor, typical in 10 patients and atypical in 23 patients. The major axis of the tumor was positively correlated with the SUVmax value(P<0.001), and the mean SUVmax of the atypical carcinoid was higher than that of the typical carcinoid(11.27 vs 3.54). The major axis of the tumor was controlled. One-way covariance analysis suggested that the pathological subtype was related to SUVmax(P=0.012). Overall, PET-CT had a sensitivity of 66.7%(95%CI: 12.5%-98.2%) and specificity of 90.9%(95%CI: 83.0%-95.5%). Conclusion Atypical carcinoids showed higher SUVmax than typical carcinoids, but the PET-CT performance of lung carcinoids is not specific. There was a high specificity in evaluating lymph node metastasis. Key words: Lung neoplasms; Carcinoid tumors; PET/CT; Neuroendocrine tumors