Objective: The incidence of esophageal cancer has increased considerably over recent years, it now being the 6th most frequent cause of cancer-related death. Our study has aimed to compare the clinical value of PET/CT and CT scan in the initial staging of patients with esophageal cancer.
Material and methods: Fifty nine patients (6 women) diagnosed of esophageal cancer were assessed retrospectively. All patients underwent diagnostic CT scan and PET/CT for initial staging within 3 to 15 days following clinical diagnosis.
Results: PET/CT showed intracellular (18)F-FDG entrapment having pathological significance in all the tumors (100%), signs of locoregional lymph node infiltration (N1) in 34 and a total of 19 lesions consistent with metastasis (M1) in 14 patients (23.72%). The CT scan detected malignancy in 57 patients (96.6%), abnormal lymph node in 32 patients and 17 N1 in 12 patients (20.33%). In three cases, CT- PET detected synchronous esophageal lesion in staging studies for other neoplastic processes (lung and ear-nose-throat).
Conclusion: PET/CT showed a higher detection rate of primary malignant lesions, abnormal lymph nodes and distant metastases. A change in stage was only observed in two patients.