Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Not applicable, Metastases, Molecular imaging, SPECT-CT, PET-CT, Hybrid Imaging, Bones, Hybrid, Molecular and Translational Imaging
Authors:
O. Y. Wong, V. Naidu, G. Kakar, H. Steinitz, J. Bomanji, G. Gnanasegaran; London/UK
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2020/C-04118
Background
Bones are common sites of metastases in most cancers. Skeletal metastasis is often a poor prognostic indicator and presents late when devastating complications such as fractures and spinal cord compression occur. Other significant complications include pain, hypercalcemia and bone marrow suppression. Therefore, it is important to detect skeletal involvement early and to determine whether patients respond to treatment.
Traditional bone scintigraphy and cross-sectional imaging are useful but are limited in their sensitivity and specificity at detecting bone metastases and at monitoring treatment response. It can be challenging to differentiate active and inactive disease at the suspected sites of bone metastases. However, detection of skeletal metastases has improved with the development and application of various radiotracers along with hybrid imaging such as SPECT-CT and PET-CT.