FDG–PET–CT and whole-body MRI for triage in patients planned for radioembolisation therapy

Purpose: The purpose was to evaluate the potential of FDG–PET–CT and whole-body MRI (WB-MRI) as diagnostic triage methods for patients planned for radioembolisation of metastatic liver disease. Materials and methods: 135 patients with multifocal liver metastases were evaluated for potential palliative therapy with radioembolisation using 90-Yttrium microspheres. All patients were examined consecutively with FDG–PET–CT and WB-MRI for exclusion of relevant extra-hepatic tumor manifestations. All patients underwent 99mTc-albumine angiography followed by scintigraphy to exclude significant hepato-pulmonary shunting. Results: Out of the 135 patients included into the pre-therapeutic diagnostic algorithm, 56% were eligible and received radioembolisation, while 44% could not be treated. In 91% the exclusion criteria was diagnosis of significant extra-hepatic metastatic disease. In 85% exclusion diagnosis was made concordantly by both FDG–PET–CT and WB-MRI, in 9% diagnosis was provided by PET–CT, in 6% by WB-MRI alone. Patient-based sensitivity for detection of extra-hepatic disease was 94% for PET–CT and 91% for WB-MRI. False-positive diagnosis of extrahepatic disease leading to exclusion for radioembolisation therapy was made in 2% of patients, in one patient by PET–CT and in one patient by WB-MRI alone. Overall, specificity for inclusion of radioembolisation therapy by combining both modalities was 99%. In 9% of patients angiographic diagnosis made radioembolisation impossible, in 7% solely the angiographic findings were decisive. Conclusion: Both FDG–PET–CT and WB-MRI are efficient diagnostic triage methods for patients planned for radioembolisation of liver metastases. Overall, FDG–PET–CT shows a trend to higher diagnostic accuracy compared to WB-MRI and may be used as imaging method of choice as a standalone examination. In combination, both modalities exhibited high sensitivity for the diagnosis of extra-hepatic tumor manifestations and result in high specificity.