Role of PET Scan in Lymphomas

This chapter presents a series of case studies and multiple choice questions and answers on the role of PET scans in lymphomas. It commences with a discourse on the evidence of extranodal disease leading to stage IV disease. One case study explains how one can recommend proceeding based on the PET-CT findings. Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs) account for 10-15 percent of newly diagnosed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Changes in PET scans following therapy reflect the impact of the drugs on the cancer, and individual anticancer drugs such as rituximab do not, by themselves, affect the outcome of a PET scan. PET scans have been proposed as a way to determine if a residual mediastinal mass in a patient who has been treated for Hodgkin lymphoma represents active disease. The chapter further talks about relapse on subsequent follow-up.