PET/CT-guided versus CT-guided percutaneous core biopsies in the diagnosis of bone tumors and tumor-like lesions: which is the better choice?

• Published in: Cancer imaging 2019-10, Vol.19 (1), p.69-69, Article 69
• Main Authors: Wu, Min-Hao, Xiao, Ling-Fei, Liu, Huo-Wen, Yang, Zhi-Qiang, Liang, Xiao-Xiao, Chen, Yan, Lei, Jun, Deng, Zhou-Ming
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Bone lesions; Bone Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Bone Neoplasms - pathology; Bone tumors; CAT scans; Comparative analysis; Complications; CT-guided; Diagnosis; Diagnostic performance; FDG PET/CT; Female; Humans; Image-Guided Biopsy - methods; Image-Guided Biopsy - standards; Image-guided bone biopsy; Male; Medical research; Middle Aged; Positron emission tomography; Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography - methods; Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography - standards; Tomography, X-Ray Computed - methods; Tomography, X-Ray Computed - standards; Tumors
• ISSN: 1470-7330; 1740-5025; 1470-7330
• DOI: 10.1186/s40644-019-0253-1

The present study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance and safety of PET/CT-guided percutaneous core bone biopsy and to compare the PET/CT-guided method to conventional CT-guided percutaneous core biopsies to diagnose Chinese patients with bone tumors and tumor-like lesions. Data for 97 patients with bone tumors and tumor-like lesions diagnosed by percutaneous core bone biopsy from February 2013 to November 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The study included 42 cases in the PET/CT group and 55 cases in the CT alone group. The diagnostic performance, cost and complications associated with the intervention were compared between the two groups. All patients were eventually confirmed to have bone tumors and tumor-like lesions according to surgical pathology findings. There were no significant differences in patient characteristics (P > 0.05). For the patients in the PET/CT group, the overall diagnostic yield of the initial biopsies and the diagnostic accuracy derived from the surgically proven cases were both 97.62%, which was significantly higher than the values in the CT group during the same period (P  0.05). Compared with CT-guided percutaneous bone biopsy, PET/CT-guided percutaneous bone biopsy is an effective and safe alternative with high diagnostic performance in the evaluation of hypermetabolic bone lesions to diagnose bone tumors and tumor-like lesions.