Detection of nodal metastatic disease in patients with non-small cell lung cancer: comparison of positron emission tomography (PET), contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT), and combined PET-CT

Of 31 patients with lung cancer, 19 underwent PET-CT and 12 had CT followed by PET. Thoracic lymph nodes were sampled by mediastinoscopy or thoracotomy. Sensitivities, specificities, positive (PPV), and negative predictive values (NPV) were calculated based on histopathology. Ninety nodes (41 malignant) were identified. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were 94%, 73%, 66%, and 96% for PET-CT, respectively. In 12 patients who underwent PET and CT separately, these values were 90%, 31%, 64%, and 71% for PET and 81%, 50%, 69%, and 66% for CT, respectively.