Diagnostic and prognostic value of 18F-FDG PET/CT in recurrent germinal tumor carcinoma

Aim: The aim of this bicentric retrospective study was to assess the diagnostic performance, the prognostic value, the incremental prognostic value and the impact on therapeutic management of 18F-FDG PET/CT in patients with suspected recurrent germinal cell testicular carcinoma (GCT). Materials and methods: From the databases of two centers including 31,500 18F-FDG PET/CT oncological studies, 114 patients affected by GCT were evaluated in a retrospective study. All 114 patients underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT for suspected recurrent disease. Diagnostic performance of visually interpreted 18F-FDG PET/CT and potential impact on the treatment decision were assessed using histology (17 patients), other diagnostic imaging modalities (i.e., contrast enhanced CT in 89 patients and MRI in 15) and clinical follow-up (114 patients) as reference. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were computed by means of Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. The progression rate (Hazard Ratio-HR...