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Value of PET-CT in plasma cell dyscrasias: a literature and pictorial review

Learning objectives

• To evaluate indications for PET-CT in plasma cell dyscrasias and its added value over other imaging modalities with review of literature based evidence and reference to the RCR/RCP guidelines.

• To discuss the use of PET-CT and subsequent clinical impact at our institution with pictorial illustration.

• To discuss the limitations and potential pitfalls of PET-CT with pictorial illustration.

Content organisation

• Role of imaging in the diagnosis, management and follow up of plasma cell dyscrasias.

• Indications for PET-CT and circumstances in which it is and is not likely to be beneficial with review of literature based evidence and RCR/RCP guidelines.

• Use of PET-CT at our institution with subsequent clinical impact in staging of non-secretory disease, myeloma, POEMS disease, assessing plasmacytoma response to treatment and MGUS transformation to myeloma with pictorial illustration.

• Limitations and potential pitfalls of PET-CT with pictorial illustration.

Conclusion

Although PET-CT is recommended by Durie-Salmon Plus, it is not widely adopted. RCR guidelines advise PET-CT for monitoring non secretory myeloma and assessing active disease. At our institution, PET-CT influenced patient management in 95%. PET-CT is useful in staging myeloma, in detection of occult bone/nodal disease and in detecting residual active disease or recurrent disease post chemoradiotherapy/bone marrow transplant. It is of less value in diffuse bone marrow involvement. PET-CT has added value to conventional imaging techniques especially when they are normal, indeterminate or contraindicated.

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Correspondence to R Aggarwal.

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This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

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Aggarwal, R., Griffin, Y. Value of PET-CT in plasma cell dyscrasias: a literature and pictorial review. Cancer Imaging 15 (Suppl 1), P11 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/1470-7330-15-S1-P11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1470-7330-15-S1-P11

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