Utility of PET/CT for therapy response assessment in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Abstract

Abstract Aim of the study to evaluate the role of PET/CT in initial diagnosis and staging of lymphoma, and to determine the predictive value of 18F-FDG PET by monitoring the early response and final response after completion of chemotherapy in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Patient and Methods our prospective study included 25 patients with pathologically confirmed nonHodgkin Lymphoma diffuse large B cell lymphoma selected from Department of Radiology at Ain Shams University Hospital from January 2019 to March 2020. The patients included in this study performed the followings: Initial PET/CT for staging, interim PET/CT and end of the treatment PET/CT. We performed low dose non enhanced CT scan first, then a whole body PET study followed by diagnostic enhanced whole body CT scan. The whole study took approximately 20-30 minutes. Results PET/CT has greater sensitivity 100% and specificity 68.8% than CT alone for detecting sites of nodal and extra-nodal involvement and for assessment of therapeutic response in non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Conclusion PET / CT is an accurate method for evaluating tumor viability in the post-therapy setting of Non-Hodgkin lymphomas. PET / CT has a significant advantage for the diagnosis of diffusely infiltrating organs without mass lesions or contrast enhancement compared to contrast enhanced CT.