The CancerWeb Report, What's New In Cancer: May, 1996
Germ Cell Tumors

• Use of PET scans - Germ cell tumors have proved very responsive to chemotherapy regimens containing cisplatin. However, while the cure rate with initial therapy may reach 70%, with another 10% cured by further intensive treatment, a significant proportion of treated patients have some visible radiographic abnormality. Unfortunately, there is no way to distinguish the 40% who have fibrosis and dead tumor from those with residual active disease requiring treatment without exploratory surgery. A group from Indiana University describe the use of positron emission (PET) scanning using a fluorinated glucose tracer to determine which patients needed treatment. All patients underwent surgery to find out whether they had active disease. These radiologists derived a standardized uptake value which was about 3 for dead tumor or fibrosis and nearly 9 for active germ cell tumors. Any value greater than 5 indicated a 75-fold increase in risk of viable cancer. (Stephens, J Clin Oncol 14:1637, 1996)