Objective: Our aim was to retrospectively assess the role of routine CT scans within the first year of follow-up with a limited surveillance policy prior to Lugano recommendations in diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) achieving complete metabolic remission (CMR). We also evaluated the type of relapse detection and exposure to CT scans within the first five years.
Methods: Patients diagnosed with DLBCL who achieved CMR after first-line immunochemotherapy were included. Imaging studies and medical records were thoroughly reviewed.
Results: Among 101 DLBCL patients in the first CMR, a total of 19 relapses were identified in the study period (18.8% of DLBCL patients included). Nine patients relapsed within the first year (47.4% of all relapses) but only 3 of them were detected by the 202 surveillance CT scans performed during this first year of follow-up.
Conclusions: Our real-world data provide clinically applicable results which are in agreement with the Lugano recommendations based on trial data, highlighting the lack of utility of routine CTs in DLBCL patients achieving CMR.
Keywords: CT scan; Non-Hodgkin lymphoma; PET-CT scan; prognosis; surveillance.