Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Pleural effusions, a common feature among patients with lung cancer, should be differentiated into benign or malignant pleural effusions. F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is one of accurate diagnostic tool for differentiating benign from malignant disease and for mediastinal lymph node staging. We explored the clinical role of PET/CT for differentiating malignant pleural effusion from benign pleural effusion among patients with lung cancer. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the data from all patients with lung cancer and pleural effusion who underwent F-18 FDG PET/CT. The PET/CT results were compared with the pathologic diagnosis or clinical follow-up. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of PET/CT for detecting malignant pleural metastases were calculated. RESULTS: A total of 33 patients were enrolled. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of PET/CT were 81.5%, 83.3%, 95.7%, 50.0%, and 81.8%, respectively, for detecting malignant pleural effusions lung cancer patients. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that F-18 FDG PET/CT can play a significant role in diagnosing lung cancer patients with pleural diffusions, with low false-positive rate. However, negative findings under PET/CT should be confirmed through further tests.