1. ¹Department of Medicine I, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus at the Dresden University of Technology, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
2. ²Department of Nuclear Medicine, PET Center Rossendorf, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus at the Dresden University of Technology, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
3. ³Department of Diagnostic Radiology, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus at the Dresden University of Technology, Fetscherstr. 74, 01307 Dresden, Germany
4. ⁴Department of Haematology/Oncology, Clinic of Internal Medicine III, Chemnitz Medical Center, Buergerstr. 2, 09113 Chemnitz, Germany

Correspondence: Dr R Naumann, E-mail ralph.naumann@uniklinikum-dresden.de

Received 1 September 2003; Revised 13 November 2003; Accepted 13 November 2003.

Abstract

This prospective study assessed the impact of ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) on the staging and possible consequential changes of treatment regimen in patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL). A total of 88 consecutive patients with histologically verified Hodgkin's lymphoma underwent a PET scan in addition to conventional staging procedures. Treatment was based on the conventional staging only, and the results of the FDG-PET did not affect the treatment strategy. The evaluation focused on the suggested change in clinical stage according to the Ann Arbor classification and on the suggested change in treatment strategy rather than on a lesion-by-lesion analysis. Using all the methods performed as the standard of reference, ¹⁸F-FDG-PET staging was concordant with conventional staging in 70 out of 88 patients (80%). ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography suggested a change to a different clinical stage in 18 patients (20%). Management would have been changed in 16 patients (18%): intensification of treatment in nine patients (10%) and minimisation of treatment in seven patients (8%). In the 44 patients with early disease (stage IA–IIB), treatment would have been intensified in nine out of 44 patients (20%). ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography is a relevant noninvasive method that supplements conventional staging procedures and should therefore be used routinely to stage Hodgkin's lymphoma, particularly in patients with an early stage.