Positron emission tomography/computed tomography in B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at Hanoi Oncology Hospital

Abstract

This study aimed to review ¹⁸fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (¹⁸FDG PET/CT) imaging characteristics of B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) at Hanoi Oncology Hospital. PET/CT helps accurately assess the NHL stage compared with other diagnostic imaging methods, such as CT and magnetic resonance imaging. In this retrospective descriptive study, 86 newly diagnosed B-cell NHL cases were histopathologically and immunohistochemically examined at Hanoi Oncology Hospital between January 2018 and December 2022. Patients underwent ¹⁸FDG PET/CT for pretreatment staging. The stages before and after PET/CT were evaluated and compared. Before PET/CT, 26 (30.2%), 29 (33.7%), 15 (17.5%), and 16 (18.6%) patients were in stages I, II, III, and IV, respectively. After PET/CT, the rates of Stage I, II, III, and IV cases were 22.1%, 26.8%, 20.9%, and 30.2%, respectively. PET/CT results increased the stage in 21/86 patients (24.4%). The proportion of patients with advanced stages after PET/CT in the rapidly progressing histopathology group was higher (25%) than the slowly progressing histopathology group (21.4%), and the difference was not significant. Therefore, PET/CT is critical for accurately determining the disease stage of B-cell NHL, thereby helping to detect additional lesions missed by conventional imaging diagnostic tools.

Keywords

B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma / ¹⁸FDG PET/CT / Pre-PET/CT stage / Post-PET/CT stage