PET/MRI Comparable to PET/CT in Staging Lung Cancer

PET plus MR imaging offers comparable diagnostic image quality and tumor delineation in staging of lung cancer to PET plus CT - with less radiation exposure to the patient, researchers reported in a study published in the journal Radiology.

Researchers from Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen, Germany, studied 10 patients who were suspected to have or were diagnosed with bronchial carcinoma. The patients, aged 38 to 73, underwent fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT, followed immediately by whole-body MR/PET imaging with a new hybrid whole-body system (3.0-T MR imager with integrated PET system).

Upon review of the results of the MR/PET, the researchers found nine of the 10 lesions showed pronounced FDG uptake. One lesion was morphologically suspicious for CT and MR imaging, but showed no FDG uptake.

Tumor-to-liver ratios were also calculated and compared between the two examinations. There was a significant correlation regarding the tumor-to-liver ratio with identical TNM scores for seven patients.

“MR/PET imaging of the lung is feasible and provides diagnostic image quality in the assessment of pulmonary masses,” the authors wrote. “Similar lesion characterization and tumor stage were found in comparing PET/CT and MR/PET images in most patients.”