• Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.369-374
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• 2008

Purpose: F-18 FDG PET/CT has excellent sensitivity and specificity for staging non-Hodgkin lymphomas, but to the author's knowledge few studies to date have evaluated FDG PET/CT in peripheral T cell lymphoma. We evaluated the usefulness of F-18 FDG PET/CT in staging of patients with peripheral T cell lymphoma, especially indolent cutaneous T cell lymphomas. Materials and Methods: Twenty five patients (M:F=17:8, age $53.7{\pm}14.8$ yrs) with biopsy-proven indolent cutaneous T cell (CL) or noncutaneous T cell lymphomas (NCL) underwent PET/CT scans for staging at baseline. Peak standardized uptake values (p-SUV) of all abnormal foci were measured and compared between cutaneous and noncutaneous lesions. F-18 FDG PET/CT was performed on 6 patients with indolent CL and on 19 patients with NCL. Results: All 6 patients with indolent CL had no significant FDG avidity in the skin despite histologically positive cutaneous lesions. However, FDG avidity appeared in extracutaneous lesions (lymph nodes) in two patients with CL where CT imaging suggested lymphoma involvement (mean p-SUV $4.26{\pm}0.37$ in noncutaneous lesions in CL). In NCL, FDG avidity was demonstrated in all lesions where CT imaging suggested lymphoma involvement (mean p-SUV, $8.52{\pm}5.00$ in noncutaneous lesions in NCL). Conclusion: F-18 FDG PET/CT has the limitation of usefulness for the evaluation of the skin in indolent CL. In contrast, F-18 FDG PET/CT is sensitive in staging evaluation of extracutaneous lesions regardless of CL or NCL.