The Diagnostic Accuracy of Bone Marrow Biopsy Versus PET/CT Scan in Identifying Bone Marrow Involvement in Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma Patients at a Cancer Hospital.

Abstract

Background It is of great importance to assess bone marrow involvement (BMI) in diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL)for staging, prognostic, and therapeutic purposes.The gold standard method used for the identification of bone marrow involvement isbone marrow biopsy (BMB), but it has certain drawbacks. In recent years, positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has become ahighly effective method in the diagnosis and staging of lymphoma. Objective The objective of this study is to estimate the diagnostic accuracy of PET/CT in identifying bone marrow involvement in DLBCL patients in a cancer care hospital in Lahore, using BMB as a reference standard. Methods This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at the Department ofPathology of Shaukat KhanumMemorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (SKMCH&RC) from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2018. A retrospective dataof 146 patients fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria was retrieved from the hospital information system (HIS). The inclusion criteria includepatients aged 18-80 years, of either gender, and with a confirmed diagnosis of DLBCL on tissue biopsy. The exclusion criteria includepatients who had startedchemotherapy or radiotherapyfor DLBCL or were using granulocyte colony-stimulatingfactor (G-CSF) prior to their PET/CT scan. All patients underwent PET/CT and BMB, and the diagnostic accuracy of PET/CT was calculated, with BMB taken as the reference standard. Results The mean age of cases was 52.73 ± 16.27 years.There were 95 (65.1%) maleand 51 (34.9%) female cases, with a high male-to-female ratio. In the present study, 32.19% of cases had bone marrow involvement on BMB, and 34.2% of cases had bone marrow involvement on PET/CT. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and overall diagnostic accuracy ofPET/CT were found to be 93.61%, 93.93%, 88%, 96.88%, and 93.84%, respectively. Conclusion It is concluded that PET/CT scan has good sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy. So, it is suggested to choose this non-invasive technique because the presence of a disease in extra-medullary space can also be detected and the evaluation of bone marrow in the whole body can be performed. PET/CT scan is an effective imaging modality in the detection of bone marrow involvement in DLBCL patients, and its relative advantages over bone marrow biopsy might conclude this to be a preferred technique.