[blair77]

PET scan confirmation of CR

by blair77 on Fri Oct 03, 2014 12:59 am

My husband is due to have a "baseline" PET scan done next week. He currently meets the guidelines for complete remission "CR."

I am wondering how often PET scans reveal active disease in people with serological remissions? Have many people had negative PET scans -- that is, scans showing no sign of myeloma -- that support their "CR" status?

[Dr. Prashant Kapoor]

Re: PET scan confirmation of CR

by Dr. Prashant Kapoor on Fri Oct 10, 2014 12:34 pm

The short answer to your question is yes they do.

Fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT imaging serves as a useful tool to evaluate response to therapy and the results have prognostic implications. The group from Bologna, Italy, has evaluated the role of FDG PET/CT in patients who underwent autologous stem cell transplantation. A negative PET scan – i.e. absence of hypermetabolic spots on the scan – was associated with a more favorable outcome.

In that study, 23% of patient who achieved a complete remission by conventional criteria still had positive (hypermetabolic) PET lesions and their disease progressed more rapidly than those who were in conventional CR with a negative PET.

However, given the limited data, this approach is not routinely recommended yet.

[blair77]

Re: PET scan confirmation of CR

by blair77 on Fri Oct 10, 2014 1:41 pm

Thank you

[Beacon Staff]

Re: PET scan confirmation of CR

by Beacon Staff on Sat Oct 11, 2014 6:47 am

The study that Dr. Kapoor mentioned in his posting above is discussed in this Beacon news article:

"Results Of PET/CT Scans May Predict Survival In Multiple Myeloma Patients," The Myeloma Beacon," The Myeloma Beacon, Sep 21, 2011.

The study reviewed in that article is now available in full, at no charge, here:

E Zamagni et al, "Prognostic relevance of 18-F FDG PET/CT in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients treated with up-front autologous transplantation," Blood, Sep 2011.