Routine use of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scanning in head and neck cancer patient follow-up studies has been shown to identify local recurrences before they become clinically apparent and may improve the outcome of subsequent salvage therapy.

The study’s findings were presented January 29, 2012, at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium, sponsored by the American Head and Neck Society (AHNS), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), and Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM), held in Phoenix (AZ, USA).

PET scan is a comparatively new imaging modality and its use as a routine follow up for head and neck cancer patients is controversial. Most head and neck cancer follow-up studies use fluorodeoxyglucose-PET (FDG-PET) scans when recurrence is suspected, but few studies have been conducted to determine the benefit of PET scans in fixed intervals post-treatment.

Researchers in this study reviewed 234 head and neck cancer cases treated with chemoradiation between 2006 and 2010 that also underwent a posttherapy PET/CT scan. The scans identified 15 patients with abnormalities requiring further evaluation, and biopsies showed malignancies in eight of the 15 patients. The other seven cases were false-positives.

All of the patients who had negative PET/CT scans remained disease free in subsequent follow-ups. “With malignancies found in 53% of abnormal scans in this study, our research proves that PET/CT scans are valuable as routine follow-up and as a surveillance method for head and neck cancer patients,” said Yasir Rudha, MD, MBChB, lead author of the study and a researcher from St. John Hospital/Van Elslander Cancer Center (Grosse Pointe Woods, MI, USA). “However, since the rate of false-positives was 46%, caution should be shown when ordering biopsies after abnormal scans to prevent excessive unnecessary biopsies.”

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