¹⁸F-FDG PET in small-cell cervical cancer: a prospective study with long-term follow-up

Small-cell cervical cancer (SCCC) is rare and prone to metastasize. We conducted a prospective study to evaluate the role of ¹⁸F-FDG PET in the management of this aggressive malignancy.

Patients with untreated primary, histologically confirmed SCCC were enrolled. ¹⁸F-FDG PET (or PET/CT) was performed immediately after MRI or CT, for primary staging, monitoring response to treatment or restaging when there was suspicion of recurrence. The clinical impact of PET was determined on a scan basis.

A total of 25 patients were recruited and 43 PET scans were performed. The PET images were obtained for primary staging (25 patients), monitoring response (10 patients) and restaging when there was suspicion of recurrence (8 patients). The median follow-up time in event-free patients was 109.3 months (range 97.5 – 157.7 months). A positive impact of PET was found in 8 (18.6 %) of the 43 scans, which included detection of additional regions of distal lymph node (LN) metastasis (one primary staging scan, two restaging scans), bone metastasis (two primary staging scans, one monitoring response scan), and exclusion of false-positive lesions on MRI (one primary staging scan, one restaging scan). On the other hand, one negative impact was recorded as one false-positive lesion on a restaging PET scan. One positive impact was noted for monitoring response (bone metastasis). The impact of three scans was indeterminate. The positive impact of down-staging in avoiding overtreatment but finding additional distal LN (except one on restaging) or bone metastases had no beneficial effect on long-term survival.

The results of this preliminary study suggest that PET is useful in the management of SCCC. PET could have more value in detecting occult metastases if future novel therapies are able to offer better control of extensive SCCC.