Clinical utility of 18F-FDG PET/CT for patients with recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: The accurate detection of distant metastases can facilitate appropriate treatment planning for patients with recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Objectives: We evaluated the role of 18F-FDG PET/CT for distant metastasis diagnosis and survival prediction in patients with recurrent HNSCC. Materials and methods: This study included 95 consecutive patients with recurrent HNSCC and salvage treatments. McNemar's test was used to compare the detection of distant metastasis at recurrence using 18F-FDG PET/CT and contrast-enhanced chest and neck CT, and bone scintigraphy. Results: Thirty-two patients (34%) had distant metastases at recurrence. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and positive and negative predictive values of 18F-FDG PET/CT for detecting chest and bone metastases were comparable to those of conventional imaging (p > .1). However, 18F-FDG PET/CT detected two additional distant metastatic lesions. After controlling for clinicopathological factors, a recurrent lesion with maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) >8.7 was identified as an independent predictor of poor overall survival (p = .001). Conclusions and significance: 18F-FDG PET/CT or conventional imaging is comparable with regard to detecting distant metastases of recurrent HNSCC. However, 18F-FDG PET/CT may detect additional metastatic lesions in unusual distant sites and the recurrent lesion SUVmax may predict patient survival after salvage treatments.