Does a negative post-therapy PET obviate the need for any further follow-up imaging in patients with nonbulky early-stage Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL)?

8058 Background: Recent reports suggest that medical imaging, besides potentially harmful, could turn out neither cost- effective, nor beneficial. We investigated whether this can be justified in the post-treatment follow-up of patients with nonbulky early-stage HL (nbHL) Methods: We identified all nbHL patients who underwent post-tx PET/CT from 11/04-1/09 at Az. Ospedaliera S. Croce e Carle in Cuneo, Italy or from 7/03-8/05 at the University of Iowa, and met the following criteria: received ≥ 4-8 cycles of chemotx alone or 3-6 cycles of chemotx followed by involved-field radiation therapy (IFRT); had PET/CT performed within 3-12 wks post-tx and adequate clinical, laboratory, and radiological follow-up for ≥ 1 y post-tx or until evidence of treatment failure. PET/CT scans were interpreted by nuclear medicine experts using the International Harmonization Project criteria. Results: Forty patients met the entry criteria for the study: all stage II; 23 received 4-6 cycles of ABVD alone, sixteen 3-6 cycles of ...