Positron Emission Tomography with 18F-FDG in a Complex Radoidiagnosis of Patients with Malignant Lymphomas

Precise determination of malignant process generalization and the assessment of the response on therapy in patients with malignant lymphomas are of primary importance. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) with ¹⁸F-FDG due to its unique possibility to detect living tumour cells regardless of the malignancy size is widely used to determine the disease stage, to plan treatment policy, to assess the treatment effectiveness, to reveal relapses, to follow up and make prognoses in patients with Hodgkin’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas. Detection of marrow failures and visceral involvement in patients with malignant lymphomas is also an advantage of PET compared to other radiodiagnosis techniques. The method has a dominant role in early assessment of the response on chemotherapy that enables to predict a long-term result of the treatment and if necessary, to change the management. In contrast to structural methods of radiodiagnosis, PET with ¹⁸F-FDG can differentiate fibrous tissue, its metabolism level being very low, from tumour tissue with high metabolic level, with high accuracy. It enables to judge if the remission after the treatment is achieved and helps to reveal a recurrent tumour in a long-term patients’ follow-up.

Tyutin L.A., Kostenikov N.A., Ilyin N.V., Khodzhibekova M.M., Vinogradova Y.N. Positron Emission Tomography with 18F-FDG in a Complex Radoidiagnosis of Patients with Malignant Lymphomas. Sovremennye tehnologii v medicine 2011; (2): 120