Role of PET/CT in patients with unexplained rising alpha fetoprotein post HCC interventional management

Abstract

Background: Positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET/CT) is considered a powerful modality in the follow-up of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. In this study, PET/CT was done in an evaluation of patients with unexplained rising alpha fetoprotein (AFP) post hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) interventional management in 40 patients (16 females and 24 males); their age ranged from 25 to 82 years, had undergone interventional management for HCC and underwent PET/CT follow-up within an 8-month duration from their intervention. Whole-body PET/CT was performed after injection of (18)-FDG, and the results were read in a masked manner by two specialists, and diagnostic performance was assessed from the results of consensus masked reading. All the results were evaluated with the Barcelona criteria and biopsy correlation. Results: During the follow-up PET/CT, 24 patients had complete response and 8 patients showed focal residual while the rest 8 patients showed newly developed lesions. Conclusion: PET/CT is an excellent method for the evaluation of HCC patients with equivocal results after interventional management.