Role of positron-emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in breast cancer

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer type in women and the most common cause of deaths in women worldwide. FDG-PET/CT was used in the early stage, estimation of the therapeutic response, revelation of recurrent disease, and distal metastasis. However, with the increasing use of FDG PET/CT, sites of accelerated activity have been occasionally found out in unexpected locations which may not correlate with the patient's clinical history or the expected propagation of the primary malignancy. The aim of this study is to detect the diagnostic value of PET/CT in breast cancer patients; comparing PET/CT performance with that of contrast-enhanced CT in diagnosis of breast cancer and distant metastasis. Results: The study included 30 female patients with breast cancer, mean age 53.56 years +/- 10.64 (SD), age range 33-73 years. PET/CT detect contralateral breast affection in 2 patients (6.7%), and distant metastasis was seen on PET/CT. Sites of distant metastasis included the bone (n= 12), axillary lymph nodes (n= 11), cervical lymph nodes (n= 6), mediastinal lymph nodes (n= 12), abdominal lymph nodes (n= 8), liver (n= 5), lung (n= 11), and other visceral sites metastasis (n= 9). PET/CT detected breast lesions with a sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 95.4%. In contrast, the sensitivity and specificity of CT alone were 81.2% and 90.4%, respectively. Conclusion: PET/CT has superiority over CT alone in revelation of breast lesions and distant metastases.