Clinical value of 18F-FDG PET/CT in postoperative monitoring for patients with colorectal carcinoma

Objective: To evaluate the clinical value of 18F-FDG PET/CT in postoperative monitoring for patients with colorectal carcinoma. Methods: 66 postoperative patients with colorectal carcinoma underwent whole-body FDG PET/CT. The final histopathological and formal clinical follow-up findings were used as gold standard to determine the sensitivity and specificity of FDG PET/CT and enhanced CT of the same periods. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of FDG PET/CT in detecting recurrence are 96.30%, 94.87% (while enhanced CT are 70.37% and 87.18% respectively). The sensitivity and specificity in detecting metastasis are 95.35%, 82.61% (enhanced CT are 61.90%, 75.00%). SUVmax was significantly higher in malignant lesions [range 4.16-22.00, mean ± standard deviation (x ± s) 8.06 ± 4.30] than in benign ones (range1.18-6.25, x ± s 2.82 ± 1.02). Conclusion: At present, whole-body 18F-FDG PET/CT is an advanced diagnostic imaging technique in detecting loco-regional recurrence and metastasis in postoperative patients with colorectal carcinoma for its higher sensitivity and specificity.