Resumen de Utility of PET/CT in patients with stage I–III melanoma

José Antonio Avilés Izquierdo, I. Molina, P. Sobrini Morillo, Iván Márquez Rodas, Enrique Mercader Cidoncha

• Purpose To study the utility of positron emission tomography with computerized tomography (PET/CT) in patients with a stage I–III melanoma.

  Patients and methods PET/CT findings from all patients with a stage I–III melanoma attended at our hospital from Sep- tember 2011 to November 2015 were reviewed.

  Results Data from 83 patients with a stage I–III melanoma, 39 patients with a positive sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) and 35 patients with locoregional recurrences were analyzed. Sensitivity of PET/CT in clinical stage I–III patients was 5%, with a 14% of false positives. In patients with a positive SLNB, PET/CT previous to complete lymph node dissection had a 23% of false negatives. In patients with clinical locoregional recurrences, PET/CT findings revealed asymptomatic visceral distant metastasis in 25.7%.

  Conclusions PET/CT has a significant rate of false positive and negative results in patients with a stage I–III melanoma.

  Utility in patients with nodal locoregional recurrences seems higher than in patients with skin metastase