Background: We compared the efficacies of integrated whole-body (18)F-FDG PET/CT (PET/CT) and (99m)Tc-DPD bone scintigraphy (bone scan) for the detection of bone metastases in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Patients and methods: Between April 2004 and May 2007, the database at our institution was retrospectively reviewed to identify all patients with newly diagnosed NSCLC and who underwent staging with both PET/CT and bone scan prior to the initiation of therapy. Presence of bone metastases was confirmed by considering all available clinical information. This search identified 1000 patients, 265 women and 735 men (age range, 18-89 years; median age, 65 years).
Results: Bone metastases were confirmed in 105 (10.5%) patients. The respective accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of PET/CT and bone scan in detecting bone metastases were 98.3% and 95.1% (p<0.001), 94.3% and 78.1% (p=0.001), and 98.8% and 97.4% (p=0.006). PET/CT also showed lower incidence of false positive (1.2% vs. 2.9%) and false-negative results (5.7% vs. 21.9%) than bone scan. Agreement between PET/CT and bone scan findings was good with calculated kappa=0.732.
Conclusions: PET/CT was superior to bone scan in the detection of bone metastases of NSCLC with the lower incidence of false-positive as well as false-negative results.