Méfiez vous du TEP-scan en cas de cancer sur maladie inflammatoire chronique de l'intestin

PET-CT scanning has been proposed as part of the pre-treatment evaluation of GI cancers with equivocal radiologic findings. PET-CT has also been prosposed for the evaluation of patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). We report the case of a patient with IBD and a new diagnosis of rectal cancer; PET-CT overestimated the degree of tumor extension due to false-positive increased uptake in areas of chronic inflammation from IBD. This observation underlines the need for cautious interpretation of PET-CT results for cancer in patients with associated inflammatory illness.