Value of PET/CT in Diagnosis of the Recurrence and Metastasis of Head-and-neck Tumor after Treatment

Purpose:To assess the value of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET / CT) with ~(18)F-FDG in diagnosis of the recurrence and metastasis of head-and-neck tumor after treat- ment as compared with PET and CT alone.Materials and Methods:20 patients were retrospectively ana- lyzed.The performance of different imaging modalities was compared on a lesion-based analysis for sen- sitivity,specificity,and accuracy.Results:11 patients were detected with recurrence or metastasis. There were 105 malignant lesions detected in all and PET/CT detected 102,3 lesions were missed.The number of lesions detected by PET and CT was 77 and 68 respectively.The sensitivity,specificity,and accuracy of PET/CT,PET,CT is 97.1%,100%,97.6%;73.3%,60%,71.2%;64.8%,40%,60.8% respec- tively.Change of treatment according to PET/CT findings occurred in 4 patients (20%).Conclusion: PET/ CT has a high accuracy for diagnosis of the recurrence and metastasis of head-and-neck tumor, better than PET or CT alone,especially for patients with severe anatomic distortion after surgery or re- hictance to perform biopsy.PET/CT also had an important impact on clinical management of patients.