Background: Malignant lymphoma is considered the most common hematological malignancy. Lymphoma is divided into Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma forms majority of cases with more affinity to involve extra-nodal sites.
Objective: to highlight role of 18F-FDG Positron Emission Tomography (PET)/ Computed tomography (CT) in evaluation & follow up of cases of Lymphoma.
Subjects and methods: This prospective study that was performed at Nasser Institute for research and treatment Hospital from January-2021 to January-2022 for staging and therapeutic assessment of lymphoma. Biopsy results were the gold standard, which compared with CT and PET results.
Results: Out of 48 cases in our study came for initial staging, assessment of treatment and follow up. PET/CT showed the same results as CT in 28 cases with no changes, while 20 cases showed discordant results with CT, mostly showed changes in FDG uptake of previously noted lesion in follow up patients, which was statistically significant. PET-CT detected additional extra nodal involvement than CT in 15 cases as: 6 cases splenic infiltration, 3 bone marrow and musculoskeletal, 2 hepatic, 1 gastric, 1 nasal, 1 CNS and 1 breast.
Conclusion: The present findings revealed the significance of 18F-FDG PET/CT as a potential method in lymphoma initial staging. PET/CT had remarkable indications in evaluation of treatment feedback as compared to conventional CT. PET/CT is highly specific and permits for definite localization of remnant masses and detects active tumor within residual mass. PET/CT was also helpful in detection of early relapsing lymphomas in both HD and NHL.