Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography fails to detect distant metastases at initial staging of melanoma patients with metastatic involvement of sentinel lymph node

Abstract

Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography failed to detect distant metastases at initial staging in patients with a positive SLNB, even in patients who presented with distant metastases within 12 months after the FDG PET scan. These results could be explained by the low prevalence of macroscopic metastatic disease at this stage and by the important delay between the onset of the spread of microscopic metastatic disease and the identification by PET scan of macroscopic metastatic disease.