F-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography for Estimating Outcomes After Initial Treatment for Metastatic Breast Cancer

Does repeated F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) after 2 weeks of treatment improve outcome estimation in metastatic breast cancer compared to standard diagnostics?This clinical cohort trial including 200 patients found that those without disease progression on early FDG-PET had better median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) than patients with disease progression. Among patients without progression on computed tomography (CT) after 8 weeks, those with progression on early FDG-PET had a median OS of 22.3 months, whereas patients without progression on both CT and early FDG-PET had an OS of 50.1 months.Early FDG-PET imaging may improve outcome estimation in newly diagnosed metastatic breast cancer compared to standard CT alone.

Corresponding Author: Carolina P. Schröder, MD, PhD, Department of Medical Oncology, Dutch Cancer Institute, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (c.schroder@nki.nl).

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