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Positron emission tomography/computed tomography as a clinical diagnostic tool for anterior mediastinal tumors

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to assess the usefulness of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in the differential diagnosis of anterior mediastinal tumors.

Methods

A total of 94 patients with anterior mediastinal masses or nodules (male, n = 41; female, n = 53; age, 17–84 years) were retrospectively evaluated. All patients were evaluated by PET/CT and the masses or nodules were histologically diagnosed in our institution.

Results

Anterior mediastinal masses and nodules were classified into two disease categories: Low (thymic hyperplasia, thymoma, mature teratoma, and MALT lymphoma) and High (thymic carcinoid, thymic cancer, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and malignant germ cell tumors) groups. The sensitivity and specificity of maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) 7.5 for the detection of High group were 77% and 100%, respectively. The SUVmax distributions of the WHO histological thymoma types and Masaoka stage thymomas extensively overlapped. Masaoka stage III thymomas had significantly higher SUVmax than Masaoka stage I thymomas. Regarding the TNM classification, the SUVmax of T3 and T1b thymomas was higher than T1a thymoma.

Conclusion

Although the SUVmax of each disease overlapped, PET/CT findings provided useful information for the differential diagnosis of anterior mediastinal masses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Thoracic Surgery, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, 4-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan

    Tatsuaki Watanabe, Takehiro Yamada, Hirotsugu Notsuda, Yasushi Matsuda, Masafumi Noda, Akira Sakurada & Yoshinori Okada

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine and Radiology, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Hideo Shimomura, Tatsushi Mutoh, Ryoi Goto & Yasuyuki Taki

  3. Department of Pathology, Tohoku University School of Medicine, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan

    Ryoko Saito & Takehiro Yamada

Authors
  1. Tatsuaki Watanabe
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  2. Hideo Shimomura
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  3. Tatsushi Mutoh
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  4. Ryoko Saito
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  5. Ryoi Goto
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  6. Takehiro Yamada
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  7. Hirotsugu Notsuda
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  8. Yasushi Matsuda
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  9. Masafumi Noda
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  10. Akira Sakurada
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  11. Yasuyuki Taki
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  12. Yoshinori Okada
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tatsuaki Watanabe.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest in association with the present study.

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Watanabe, T., Shimomura, H., Mutoh, T. et al. Positron emission tomography/computed tomography as a clinical diagnostic tool for anterior mediastinal tumors. Surg Today 49, 143–149 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00595-018-1712-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00595-018-1712-1

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