Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: Evaluation by PET / CT

Abstract

Abstract Background Breast cancer (BC)is the most commonly occurring cancer in women and the second most common cancer overall.An increase in the rate of breast preservation has come to be expected because of tumor reduction using neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for locally advanced cancer and it is important to accurately determine the effects of NAC. Patients and Methods This study was conducted on 30 female patients with histopathologically confirmed breast cancer referred for a PET/CT scan aiming to demonstrate the role of 18F-FDG PET/CT in detecting the pathological response to NAC in BC patients. Results No statistically significant differences were found between the baseline number of lesions and that after three cycles of chemotherapy. Also, no statistically significant differences were found between the mean values of baseline and after three cycles of chemotherapy of both liver activity and size of right breast lesions. Meanwhile, the mean values of SUV of right and left breast lesions as well as the size of left breast lesions were significantly lower after three cycles of chemotherapy when compared to their baseline values. And no statistically significant differences were found between complete and partial therapeutic response in the right breast lesions as well as between complete and no therapeutic response in the left breast lesions as regards baseline SUV and SUV after 3 cycles of chemotherapy. Conclusion It can be concluded that FDG-PET/CT is useful for evaluation of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer. However, more studies are needed to validate the results of the current study.