Diagnostic and Clinical Impact of 18F-FDG PET/CT in Staging and Restaging Soft-Tissue Sarcomas of the Extremities and Trunk: Mono-Institutional Retrospective Study of a Sarcoma Referral Center

Figures

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  Figure 1. Distribution of standardized uptake value (SUVmax) values in 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) performed in the initial staging, according to different histological subtypes. Boxplot shows interquartile range (box), median (line within the box) and data range (vertical lines). “Low-grade sarcoma” includes: myxoinflammatory fibroblastic sarcoma, low-grade leiomyosarcoma, low-grade liposarcoma and solitary fibrous tumor; “Others” includes high-grade solitary fibrous tumor, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor and clear cell sarcoma.

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  Figure 2. (A) Percentage of metastatic lung nodules showing a target-to-background (T/B) ratio > 1.2; (B) trend of T/B ratio according to dimensions of metastatic nodules. Boxplot shows interquartile range (box), median (line within the box) and data range (vertical lines).

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  Figure 3. (A,B; SUVmax = 7.1) 18F-FDG PET/CT for initial staging in a patient with a rhabdomyosarcoma of the right thigh showing unexpected small FDG-avid bone metastases at the level of the sacrum (A,B; SUVmax = 7.1) and of the left hemipubis (E,F; SUVmax = 7.9), which were not associated with any osteostructural alteration at the (C,D,G,H) co-registered CT image. (A,E) Axial and (B,F) coronal 18F-FDG PET/CT fused images of the sacrum and of the hip, along with the (C,D,G,H) corresponding CT images.