Benign and malignant neurogenic tumors of nerve sheath origin on FDG PET

The differentiation between benign and malignant nerve sheath tumors is difficult based on conventional radiological imaging. This study was undertaken to investigate the value of FDG PET in distinguishing benign from malignant neurogenic tumors of nerve sheath origin. We performed a retrospective review of the medical record to select patients with nerve sheath tumors who had underdone FDG PET imaging. Fifteen patients (7F: 8M) with benign or malignant nerve sheath tumors were included in this study. Of the 15 patients, 9 were diagnosed with the known neurofibromatosis type I. A total of 19 nerve sheath tumors were included from the 15 patients. All patients had undergone FDG PET to evaluate for malignant potential of the known lesions. Images of FDG PET were semi-quantitatively analyzed and a region of interest (ROI) was placed over the area of the maximum FDG uptake and an average standardized uptake value was taken for final analysis. There were 5 malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors, 5 schwannomas, and 9 neurofibromas. The mean SUV was 2 (ranged from 1.6 to 3.3) for schwannomas, 1.3 (0.7 to 2.5) for neurofibromas, and 8.4 (4.6 to 12.2) for malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors. Of 14 benign tumors, all except one schwannoma showed a SUV less than 3. When a cutoff SUV of 4 was used to differentiate the nerve sheath tumors, all tumors were correctly classified as benign or malignant, respectively. Among the 9 patients diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type I. 4 had malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors and FDG PET accurately detected all the 4 lesions with malignant transformation. According to our results, FDG PET seems to have a great potential for accurately characterizing benign versus malignant nerve sheath tumors. It appears to be extremely useful for patients with neurofibromatosis to localize the lesion with malignant transformation