Metastatic lymph nodes in patients with cervical cancer: detection with MR imaging and FDG PET.

PURPOSE: To compare the diagnostic accuracy of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging with that of positron emission tomography (PET) with 2-[fluorine 18]fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose (FDG) for detecting metastatic lymph nodes in patients with cervical cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Before radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy in 35 patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage IB or II cervical cancer, abdominal FDG-PET and MR imaging were performed. Malignancy criteria were a lymph node diameter of 1 cm or more at MR imaging and a focally increased FDG uptake at PET. The findings of FDG-PET and MR imaging were compared with histologic findings. RESULTS: Histologic examination revealed pN0-stage cancer in 24 patients and pN1-stage cancer in 11 patients. On a patient basis, node staging resulted in sensitivities of 0.91 with FDG-PET and 0.73 with MR imaging and specificities of 1.00 with FDG-PET and 0.83 with MR imaging. The positive predictive value (PPV) of FDG-PET was 1.00 and...