• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.882-893
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• 1996

Background : Over one-third of solitary pulmonary nodules are malignant, but most malignant SPNs are in the early stages at diagnosis and can be cured by surgical removal. Therefore, early diagnosis of malignant SPN is essential for the lifesaving of the patient. The incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis in Korea is somewhat higher than those of other countries and a large number of SPNs are found to be tuberculoma. Most primary physicians tend to regard newly detected solitary pulmonary nodule as tuberculoma with only noninvasive imaging such as CT and they prefer clinical observation if the findings suggest benignancy without further invasive procedures. Many kinds of noninvasive procedures for confirmatory diagnosis have been introduced to differentiate malignant SPNs from benign ones, but none of them has been satisfactory. FOG-PET is a unique tool for imaging and quantifying the status of glucose metabolism. On the basis that glucose metabolism is increased in the malignant transfomled cells compared with normal cells, FDG-PET is considered to be the satisfactory noninvasive procedure which can differentiate malignant SPNs from benign SPNs. So we performed FOG-PET in patients with solitary pulmonary nodule and evaluated the diagnostic accuracy in the diagnosis of malignant SPNs. Method : 34 patients with a solitary pulmonary nodule less than 6 cm of irs diameter who visited Samsung Medical Center from Semptember, 1994 to Semptember, 1995 were evaluated prospectively. Simple chest roentgenography, chest computer tomography, FOG-PET scan were performed for all patients. The results of FOG-PET were evaluated comparing with the results of final diagnosis confirmed by sputum study, PCNA, fiberoptic bronchoscopy, or thoracotomy. Results : (I) There was no significant difference in nodule size between malignant (3.1 1.5cm) and benign nodule(2.81.0cm)(p>0.05). (2) Peal SUV(standardized uptake value) of malignant nodules (6.93.7) was significantly higher than peak SUV of benign nodules(2.71.7) and time-activity curves showed continuous increase in malignant nodules. (3) Three false negative cases were found among eighteen malignant nodule by the FDG-PET imaging study and all three cases were nonmucinous bronchioloalveolar carcinoma less than 2 em diameter. (4) FOG-PET imaging resulted in 83% sensitivity, 100% specificity, 100% positive predictive value and 84% negative predictive value. Conclusion: FOG-PET imaging is a new noninvasive diagnostic method of solitary pulmonary nodule thai has a high accuracy of differential diagnosis between malignant and benign nodule. FDG-PET imaging could be used for the differential diagnosis of SPN which is not properly diagnosed with conventional methods before thoracotomy. Considering the high accuracy of FDG-PET imaging, this procedure may play an important role in making the dicision to perform thoracotomy in diffcult cases.

• Radiation Oncology Journal
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.35-43
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• 1986

Study patients with head and neck carcinoma were studied retrospectively to assess the impact of treatment on survival and local control rate by stage in the Dept of Radiation Therapy, Korea University Hae Wha Hospital between March 1981 and March 1986. Prior to definite radiotherapy, patients were evaluated by physical examination and radiologic studies including chest, laryngogram and CT scan and then these patients were grouped according to the American Joint Committee (AJC) staging system. They were treated with RT alone or postoperative irradiation to the dose of 7,200 cGy/8 weeks and 6,000 cGy/7 weeks respectively. The results were obtained and as follows; 1. Overall male to female sex ratio was 3.6:1. The peak age of patients with head and neck cancer was 6th decade. 2. In all patients treated by RT, the ratio of squamous cell 1 carcinoma to non-squamous cell carcinoma was 3.5:1 (60/77 patients). 3. The incidence according to the anatomic site of primary tumor was 22 cases in the larynx, 12 cases in PNS, 7 cases in nasopharynx, 6 cases in oropharynx, and 3 cases in hypopharynx. 4. According to AJC staging system,4 cases were Stage 1,7 in Stage II, 19 in Stage III and 27 in Stage IV. 5. The overall incidence of cervical lymph node metastases was $43\%$ and subdigatric and submaxillary triangle lymph nodes were the most frequent site of metastases. 6. Local control was achieved in $48\%$ of patients treated by radio-therapy. 7. The lung was the most common site for distant metastases, comprising 4 cases among 7 cases in which distant metastases occured. 8. The overall estimated 5-year survival rate was $43\%$ in the head and neck cancer treated with radiotherapy by life-table analysis.