The optimal utilization of PET/CT imaging in patients with head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) is a topic of immediate concern for radiology. Payers are restricting access to this modality without any data to support their decisions. It is critical for radiologists to supply the data upon which intelligent utilization decisions can be based.

When we started this research, our experience was that HNSCC patients with completely negative posttreatment PET/CTs were unlikely to recur, and we hoped to be able to reduce the expense of surveillance imaging. We found that only 9% patients with a negative PET/CT following treatment eventually recurred, and in the subgroup of patients with 2 consecutive negative PET/CT examinations, only 2% recurred.

Our findings have allowed our referring clinicians to reduce the length of their patients’  imaging surveillance. We have received positive feedback from radiologists both in the United States and abroad, who have noted that this paper provided evidence for what they had intuitively surmised.

As imagers, it is important that we understand precisely how previous radiology results affect the pretest probability of the studies we are interpreting. At the University of Pittsburgh, there are several additional ongoing research projects focused on optimizing PET/CT utilization in head and neck cancer patients.

 

Read this article at AJNR.org …