CHICAGO, IL, USA (UroToday.com) - Traditional PET scanning with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose for renal cell cancer has been largely of little use. However, the use of 11C-Acetate may change this situation completely.
In this study of Bosniak III and IV renal cysts, ALL renal cell cancers (i.e. 10/10) greater than 1.5 cm were detected while lesions 1 cm or smaller could not be imaged. Tumors at the 1.5 cm size were imaged in 3 of 5 (60%) cases. This is quite exciting news, as if these data are corroborated in a larger series we could have a very effective manner for distinguishing which Bosniak 3 cysts require exploration provided the solid portion of the cyst is greater than 1.5 cm. Other questions arise, such as whether the 11C-Acetate PET will be of value for solid renal masses from the standpoint of differentiating benign from malignant entities?
Presented by Nobuyuki Oyama, MD, et al. at the Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) - April 25 - 30, 2009 - McCormick Place Convention Center - Chicago, Illinois, USA.
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