Keywords:
Stomach (incl. Oesophagus), Oncology, Nuclear medicine, PET-CT, Diagnostic procedure, Neoplasia
Authors:
L. Evangelista, A. R. Cervino, R. Alfieri, C. Castoro, P. C. Muzzio, F. Pomerri; Padova/IT
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2012/B-0657
Purpose
The poor prognosis of esophageal cancer (EC) has encouraged many Researchers to find several quantitative or semi-quantitative PET/CT parameters significantly related to the prognosis.
As demonstrated by Lordick et al.
(Lordick,
Annals of Oncology 2010),
PET/CT is the most important independent prognostic factor in evaluating the effectiveness of neoadjuvant therapy; in particular,
it results able to differentiate patients who show a significant response to therapy from the patients do not.
This latter result is correlated with a poor prognosis.
The response to neoadjuvant treatment is the first purpose and the possibility of having a prognostic parameter for risk stratification can address to the best treatment plan.
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic value of FDG-PET/CT after neo-adjuvant therapy in locally advanced EC patients.