Journal d'oncologie clinique et expérimentale

Can FDG PET/CT and CT Exclude N2 and N3 Nodal Disease in Patients with Breast Cancer?

Muhammet Arslan, Bozkurt Gulek, Aygul Polat Kelle, Serkan Akbulut, Erhan Ugurlu, Isa Burak Guney, Sinan Sozutok and Ozgur Kulahci

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate if PET-CT and CT were able to exclude N2 and N3 disease in patients with breast cancer.

Materials and Methods: In this study, the PET-CT reports of 211 patients who had been previously diagnosed with breast cancer and who had undergone PET-CT examinations and sentinel lymph node biopsies or axillary lymph node dissections, were reevaluated retrospectively. Whether PET-CT and CT were able to exclude N2 or N3 disease was the subject of evaluation of this study.

Results: It was found at the end of the study that PET-CT was able to exclude N2 and N3 involvement in 92,9 % of the cases, whereas CT alone could do the same exclusion in 93,6 %.

Conclusion: PET-CT and CT can well exclude N2 and N3 disease in patients with breast cancer. It may be suggested that PET-CT can replace sentinel lymph node biopsy in future preoperative evaluations.