The power of PET came across loud and clear in July. Studies showed its utility in informing management of triple-negative breast cancers, monitoring Alzheimer’s progression and predicting chemo success for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.
Marjan S. Bolouri, MD, from the departments of radiology and biomedical imaging at the University of California, San Francisco, and colleagues conducted a retrospective study of invasive breast cancer patients who underwent dynamic contrast material–enhanced (DCE) MR imaging and FDG PET/CT before treatment from January 2005 through December 2009 and found that the approach may be valuable for prognostic assessment. The study was published online July 17 in Radiology.
Sepideh Shokouhi, PhD, from the department of radiology and radiological sciences at Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science in Nashville, Tenn., and colleagues conducted a retrospective study mining data from the Alzheimer Disease Neuroimaging Initiative to track longitudinal changes in the brains of patients and how they relate to cognitive decline. The researchers reported cognitive testing and a series of F-18 FDG PET studies provided valuable information about Alzheimer’s disease formation. The study was published online July 12 in Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
Edwin A. Usmanij, from the department of nuclear medicine at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and colleagues followed patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer they underwent concomitant regiments of dual-drug chemotherapy and intensity modulated radiotherapy. They reported a link between a drop in total lesion glycolysis and progression-free survival. The study was published online July 17 in Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
How is your practice flexing its PET muscles? Let us know.
Lisa Fratt, editor
lfratt@trimedmedia.com