Added Value of PET/CT in Assessment of Hepatocellular Malignancy Post Radiofrequency Ablation

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common primary liver malignancy and is a leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. It is the third most common cause of death of cancer worldwide, also the sixth and fourth common cancer in worldwide and Egypt, respectively.

Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a technique that is recently developed for the ablation of liver tumours. It converts radio frequency waves into thermal energy, causing coagulation necrosis of the tumours. It has attracted great interest in recent years because of the excellent response rate with little morbidity. Compared with other local ablative modalities, RFA has been shown to be safer and more effective.

Positron emission tomography (PET) with 18F-fluoro-2- deoxy-D-glucose (18F-FDG) is a functional imaging tool that provides metabolic information of the lesion. It is effective for diagnosis, monitoring therapy and detection of recurrent tumours of various cancers because of its high sensitivity and specificity. However, it is less successful in the detection of primary HCC because of variable uptake. Even though the value of 18F-FDG PET for the detection of primary HCC remains controversial, 18F-FDG PET would seem to be appropriate for the follow-up of liver tumours.

Inclusion criteria

• Age from 40 to 75 years.
• Both sexes.
• Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and underwent radiofrequency ablation (RFA) .

Exclusion criteria

• Patients with past history of contrast allergy.
• Patients with blood glucose level >200 mg/dl at the time of the study.
• High serum creatinine> 2 mg / dl.
• Small lesions < 10 mm.
• Well differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) lesions by pathology.