Objective: One reason for the poor outcomes of multimodality therapies, including macroscopic complete resection, in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is the difficulty of correctly staging the disease, which can result in incomplete resection. The purpose of this study was to investigate the aspects of tumor infiltration to the port site and the usefulness of preoperative FDG PET/CT for diagnosing MPM.
Methods: Between June 2007 and May 2013, 21 patients who underwent surgical treatment with curative intent for MPM that had been previously diagnosed on a video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) biopsy were included in this study.
Results: There were 17 males and four females, with a mean age of 63 years. The accumulation of FDG at the port site was observed in all nine patients with tumor infiltration to the port site, whereas this feature was not noted in 15 patients without tumor extension to the port site. There were more positive lymph node cases in the infiltration group than in the non-infiltration group (p = 0.02). No significant differences in survival were observed between the patients with and without tumor infiltration to the port site.
Conclusions: FDG PET/CT is useful for detecting tumor infiltration of MPM to the port site and may help to prevent local recurrence, especially port site relapse, following macroscopic complete resection. However, this condition is related to tumor aggressiveness; therefore, performing careful staging and determining the appropriate treatment strategy are required in such patients.