PET-CT in Diagnosis of Pancreatic Cystic Neoplasms

• Predictive Value of PET/CT imaging for Identifying Malignant and Benign Pancreatic Cystic Lesions [ Time Frame: 1 mo ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  To determine sensitivities, specificities, accuracy and positive/negative predictive values of PET/CT imaging for differentiating malignant and benign cystic lesions in patients who are to undergo surgical resection.
  
  

• To compare PET/CT to ERCP, MDCT and MRI-MRCP [ Time Frame: 1 mo ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

Today, in clinical practice the diagnosis pancreatic cystic neoplasms are based on MDCT, MRI and ERCP followed by surgical exploration. The information gained by conventional imaging modalities is restricted to the morphological details, which usually is insufficient for the definitive staging of the pancreatic cystic neoplasms. Based on these previous studies, it seems that PET especially combined with CT modality could improve the diagnostic accuracy of the pancreatic cystic lesions.

So far, there are only few cases published concerning the role of 18F-FDG-PET-CT in the differential diagnosis of cystic pancreatic lesions. Therefore, more studies are needed to determine the role of combined 18F-FDG-PET-CT in the diagnosis of pancreatic cystic lesions.

The aim of the current project is to evaluate the possibility to enhance the diagnostic accuracy by using the combined 18F-FDG-PET-CT imaging in patients with pancreatic cystic neoplasms by combining PET-CT with MRI and MDCT.

The study consists of 20-30 patients with pancreatic cystic neoplasms. The patients enrolled in the study will be imaged by MDCT, MRI combined with magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP), endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and 18F-FDG-PET-CT followed by surgery or follow-up. The data will be collected between 2011 and 2013.