Background and objective: Accurate and early diagnosis of recurrence for cervical cancer after the treatment and aggressive salvage treatment could improve the prognosis of this disease. Serum squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCAg) is the most commonly used tumor marker for the detection of asymptomatic recurrence of cervical cancer. This study was to evaluate the application and value of (18)F-FDG PET/CT in cervical cancer with elevated of serum SCCAg level during the follow-up.
Methods: Thirty-one patients with cervical cancer with elevated serum SCCAg level during the follow-up undergoing (18)F-FDG PET/CT in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center between August 2005 and November 2008 were entered into this retrospective study. The pathological types, the serum SCCAg level, PET/CT results, results of other imaging modalities, pathological and clinical follow-ups were recorded.
Results: All 31 patients'pathological examination showed squamous cell carcinoma, including three adenosquamous carcinoma. Lesions of all patients were examined by PET/CT. Three patients had local recurrence in the uterus or vagina, 28 had metastatic disease. Of these 31 patients, three were confirmed to have local recurrent disease, 27 were verified to have metastatic disease and one was diagnosed as primary lung squamous cell carcinoma by pathological or clinical manifestations. The total detection rate of PET/CT for malignancy was 100% (31/31); the diagnostic accuracy of PET/CT for recurrent cervical cancer was 96.8% (30/31). The levels of serum SCCAg during the follow-up were 1.5-37.8 ng/ml. There was no relation between the level of serum SCCAg and the maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax) of PET/CT. Compared with other imaging modalities, PET/CT was more efficient in detecting recurrence and finding more lesions.
Conclusions: An elevated level of SCCAg in cervical cancer during the follow-up indicates tumor recurrence. PET/CT is efficient in detecting the recurrence and has high diagnostic accuracy.