Reston, Va. (March 21, 2012) – New quantitative data suggests that 30 percent of the surgeries performed for non-small cell lung cancer patients in a community-wide clinical study were deemed unnecessary. Additionally, positron emission tomography (PET) was found to reduce unnecessary surgeries by 50 percent, according to research published in the March issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
PET imaging prior to surgery helps stage a patient's disease by providing functional images of tumors throughout the body, especially areas where cancer has spread, otherwise known as metastasis. Few studies have been able to pin down exactly what impact preoperative PET has on clinical decision-making and resulting treatment. Preliminary review of the data from this long-term, observational study of an entire community of veterans was inconclusive about the utility of PET, but after a more thorough statistical analysis accounting for selection bias and other confounding factors, the researchers were able to conclude that PET imaging eliminated approximately half of unnecessary surgeries.
"It has become standard of care for lung cancer patients to receive preoperative PET imaging," said Steven Zeliadt, PhD, lead author of the study conducted at VA Puget Sound Health Care System and associate professor for the University of Washington in Seattle, Wash. "The prevailing evidence reinforces the general understanding within the medical community that PET is very useful for identifying occult metastasis and that it helps get the right people to surgery while avoiding unnecessary surgeries for those who would not benefit."
For this study, researchers reviewed newly diagnosed non-small lung cancer patients who received preoperative PET to assess the real-life effectiveness of PET as a preventative measure against unnecessarily invasive treatment across a community of patients. A total of 2,977 veterans who underwent PET during disease staging from 1997 to 2009 were included in the study. Of these, 976 patients underwent surgery to resect their lung cancer. During surgery or within 12 months of surgery, 30 percent of these patients were found to have advanced-stage metastatic disease, indicating an unnecessary surgery.
Interestingly, the use of PET increased during the study period from 9% to 91%. Conventional multivariate analyses was followed by instrumental variable analyses to account for unobserved anomalies, such as when patients did not undergo PET when it would have been clinically recommended to do so. This new data has the potential to change policy and recommendations regarding the use of oncologic PET for more accurate tumor staging.
"We will likely build more quality measures around this research so that preoperative PET is more strongly recommended to improve the management of care for these patients," added Zeliadt.
Authors of the article "Preoperative PET and the Reduction of Unnecessary Surgery Among Newly Diagnosed Lung Cancer Patients in a Community Setting" include Steven B. Zeliadt, David H. Au, Paul L. Hebert, Health Services Research and Development, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Seattle, Washington; Steven B. Zeliadt, Paul L. Hebert, Gregory J. Klein, Larry G. Kessler, Department of Health Services, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington; Elizabeth T. Loggers, Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, Washington, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington; Christopher G. Slatore, Pulmonary and Critical Care Section and Health Services Research and Development, Portland VA Medical Center, Portland, Oregon, and Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon; David H. Au, Pulmonary and Critical Care Service, VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington, and University of Washington, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Seattle, Washington; and Leah M. Backhus, Surgery Service, VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington; and University of Washington, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Seattle, Washington.
About the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging
The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) is an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to raising public awareness about nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, a vital element of today's medical practice that adds an additional dimension to diagnosis, changing the way common and devastating diseases are understood and treated and helping provide patients with the best health care possible.
SNMMI's more than 19,000 members set the standard for molecular imaging and nuclear medicine practice by creating guidelines, sharing information through journals and meetings and leading advocacy on key issues that affect molecular imaging and therapy research and practice. For more information, visit http://www.snmmi.org.
Journal
Journal of Nuclear Medicine