Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) for detecting metastasis and its impact on patient management with upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC). Patients and Methods: Consecutive patients with UTUC underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT after CT for initial staging (n = 47) and for restaging at recurrence (n = 9). Diagnostic accuracy for detecting metastases with PET/CT and CT was compared statistically. The impact of PET/CT on patient management was assessed by comparing questionnaires that were completed by the attending physicians before and after PET/CT. Results: In the lesion-based analysis, 142 lesions were diagnosed as metastases. The sensitivity of PET/CT was significantly better than that of CT (85 vs. 50%, p = 0.0001). In the patient-based analysis, 22 patients were diagnosed as having metastases. The sensitivity/specificity/accuracy of PET/CT tended to be superior to those of CT, but these values were not significantly different (95, 91, and 93% vs. 82, 85, and 84%; p = 0.25, 0.50, and 0.063, respectively). The clinicians changed their assessments of disease extent and management plans in 18 (32%) and 11 (20%) patients, respectively, based on the PET/CT results. Conclusions: The diagnostic accuracy of PET/CT for detecting metastasis was superior to that of CT. PET/CT provided additional information to the CT-based staging, which had an impact on patient management.

Keywords:
Upper tract urothelial carcinoma, 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose, Metastasis, Patient management, Positron emission tomography/computed tomography, Diagnosis
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2015
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