Authors' objectives: To assess the performance of whole-body positron emission tomography (PER or PET-CT scan) with 18F–fluorodeoxyglucose as diagnostic test in evaluating the response in lymphomas to chemo- and immunotherapy in terms of validity and utility.

Authors' results and conclusions: Two of the papers from among the bibliography that had been selected were systematic reviews of literature/meta-analysis.The most recent review, published by Zijlstra et al (April 25th 2006), had the same main objective than us at the beginning of the present study. The search time established for this systematic review was 1999-2004. Thus, after reading it thoroughly and once its scientific and methodological quality had been assessed, it was decided to update this review by establishing 2004 as time limit for the search and keeping the prospectivity criterion in the studies to be assessed. The total amount of papers that were selected after the screening process was 10. Seven of the studies assessed PET-FDG in HL.Two of them included as HL as aggressive NHL patients and only one study analysed the utility of PET in aggressive NHL alone. The population that enrolled in the studies increased up to 574 patients who corresponded to 76.5 % of HL, and 23.5% of NHL. 85.2% of NHL were diffuse large B-cell. Only one study on NHL included population that had been treated with immunotherapy in combination with chemotherapy. No study was found that assessed PET-FDG’s usefulness in patients undergoing radioimmunotherapy. There was a great diversity in patient training protocols and PET FDG studies’ retrieval and interpretation. The endpoint variable in all the studies was the time spent by patients without the disease, i.e. disease-free period or overall survival in a limited time, although there are great differences related to its definition In HL patients, the negative predictive value of PET-FDG after 2-3 chemotherapy cycles ranged from 93.4% (CI 95%, 92.6-94.3) to 100% (CI 95%, 99.3 100%); The percentage of disease-free patients during the follow up period was higher in the group of studies with negative PET FDG than in the positive PET-FDG group as during chemotherapy as at the end of the treatment. In HL patients, PET-FDG outweighed CT scan in assessing posttreatment residual masses.

Authors' methods: Review

Project Status: Completed

URL for project: https://www.aetsa.org/publicacion/utilidad-de-la-pet-fdg-en-la-valoracion-de-la-respuesta-del-linfoma-revision-sistematica-de-los-resultados-tras-quimioterapia-e-inmunoterapia/

Year Published: 2008

URL for published report: https://www.aetsa.org/download/publicaciones/antiguas/AETSA_2006-16_PETFDGLinfoma.pdf

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Not Assigned

Country: Spain

Organisation Name: Andalusian Health Technology Assessment Area

Contact Address: Area de Evaluacion de Tecnologias Sanitarias Sanitarias de Andalucia (AETSA) Avda. Innovación, s/n Edificio Arena 1. Sevilla (Spain) Tel. +34 955 006 309

Contact Name: aetsa.csalud@juntadeandalucia.es

Contact Email: aetsa.csalud@juntadeandalucia.es

Copyright: Andalusian Agency for Health Technology Assessment (AETSA)