Disease Restaging and Diagnosis of Recurrent and Metastatic Disease Following Primary Therapy with FDG-PET Imaging

摘要

Breast cancer is the most common nonskin cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in women. There are 40,000 women per year dying of breast cancer in the United States, and most breast cancer victims die of progressive metastatic disease. The optimal treatment of patients with recurrent breast cancer depends on knowing the true extent of disease. Conventional imaging (Cl) for restaging breast cancer, which includes mammography, ultrasound, and MR imaging for locoregional recurrence (LRR) and contrast-enhanced CT and bone scintigraphy for distant metastasis, covers likely sites of breast cancer recurrence and spread, but may miss sites of recurrence and particularly sites of disease spread. The addition of fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET to Cl for detection of recurrent neoplasm after primary treatment of breast cancer has proved to be a complementary imaging technique, overcoming many of the limitations Cl for restaging.