Abstract
(1) Background: The novel hybrid of positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance (PET/MR) examination has been introduced to clinical practice. The aim of our study was to evaluate PET/MR usefulness in preoperative staging of head and neck cancer (HNC) patients (pts); (2) Methods: Thirty eight pts underwent both computed tomography (CT) and PET/MR examination, of whom 21 pts underwent surgical treatment as first-line therapy and were further included in the present study. Postsurgical tissue material was subjected to routine histopathological (HP) examination with additional evaluation of p16, human papillomavirus (HPV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and Ki67 status. Agreement of clinical and pathological T staging, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) of CT and PET/MR in metastatic lymph nodes detection were defined. The verification of dependences between standardized uptake value (SUV value), tumor geometrical parameters, number of metastatic lymph nodes in PET/MR and CT, biochemical parameters, Ki67 index, p16, HPV and EBV status was made with statistical analysis of obtained results; (3) Results: PET/MR is characterized by better agreement in T staging, higher specificity, sensitivity, PPV and NPV of lymph nodes evaluation than CT imaging. Significant correlations were observed between SUVmax and maximal tumor diameter from PET/MR, between SUVmean and CT tumor volume, PET/MR tumor volume, maximal tumor diameter assessed in PET/MR. Other correlations were weak and insignificant; (4) Conclusions: Hybrid PET/MR imaging is useful in preoperative staging of HNC. Further studies are needed.
Highlights
Head and neck cancers (HNC) are the sixth most common cancers worldwide
Agreement between T stages determined with computed tomography (CT), Positron emission tomography (PET)/MRI and histopathological (HP)
Imaging can play an importantpatients role in the Despite substantial discrepancies in the obtained results, the difference between the p16-positive and study, we compared the efficacy of PET/MRI with the routinely used CT scanning and HP examination, the p16-negative groups was insignificant
Summary
Head and neck cancers (HNC) are the sixth most common cancers worldwide. HNC present with locally advanced disease at the primary site and/or spread to regional lymph nodes. The 5-year survival rate of HNC patients ranges between 40% and 70%, depending on the primary site and stage [1,2]. Cancers 2020, 12, 511; doi:10.3390/cancers12020511 www.mdpi.com/journal/cancers (18F-FDG) as a radiotracer is an established procedure in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) diagnosis [2]. PET supports the initial staging of difficult cases, where other imaging methods produce equivocal results. It is useful in the detection of occult primary tumors and synchronous primary cancers. PET aids in assessing tumor response to therapy and helps in detecting cancer recurrence and metastasis during the follow-up period [3,4,5]
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