Dear Molecular Imaging Insider,
The ECR again was a huge success, with a record number of radiology professionals attending ECR 2018 in Vienna in person and with substantial numbers following along remotely in the ECR Online streaming platform.
Among the highlights of the scientific presentations is a study by Swiss researchers who found that both PET/MRI and PET/CT perform admirably in the initial staging of breast cancer patients. There are, however, subtle nuances between the hybrid modalities of which clinicians should be aware.
Also at ECR 2018 were Ukrainian researchers who reported on how certain quantitative PET parameters can help clinicians predict treatment outcomes for patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Preliminary results show how parameters such as metabolic tumor volume and mean standardized uptake values can predict which patients will enjoy event-free survival.
While the combination of PET and MRI has shown promise for detecting and characterizing some forms of cancer, the hybrid modality does not match the accuracy of invasive sentinel lymph node biopsy in melanoma patients, according to this presentation at ECR 2018 from German researchers.
Looking to save scan time and radiation exposure for your melanoma patients? U.S. and German researchers recommend that all clinicians bypass imaging upper and lower extremities in whole-body FDG-PET/CT scans. In a review of more than 1,600 subjects, there were only two cases of a metastasis in an extremity that would not have been detected by a standard skull-to-midthigh PET/CT exam.
Finally, Thomas Beyer, PhD, professor of physics of medical imaging at the Medical University of Vienna, discusses an extensive new survey that sheds light on current and future challenges in the successful clinical implementation of hybrid imaging in Europe.
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