Cancer screening with FDG-PET

Abstract

Aim: Thi study is based on medical health check-up and cancer screening on of a medical health club using PET, MRI, spiral CT and other conventional examinations.

Methods: Between October 1994 and June 2005, 9,357 asymptomatic members of the health club participated in 24,772 screening session (5,693 men and 3,664 women, mean age was 52.2+/-10.4 years).

Results: Malignant tumors were discovered in 296 of the 9,357 participants (3.16%) and 24,772 screening sessions (1.19%). The detection rate of our program is much higher than that of mass screening in Japan. The thyroid, lung, colon and breast cancers were PET positive, but the prostate, renal and bladder cancers were generally PET negative.

Conclusions: FDG-PET has the potential to detect a wide variety of cancers at curable stages in asymptomatic individuals. To reduce false-positive and false-negative results of PET examination, there is a need for experienced radiologist and/or oncologists who had training in the wide aspect of FDG-PET. FDG-PET has limitations in the detection of urological cancers, cancers of low cell density, small cancers and hypometabolic or FDG non-avid cancers. Therefore, conventional examinations and/or PET/CT are also needed for cancer screening in association with FDG-PET.