Positron Emission Tomography Combined With Computed Tomography as a Screening Tool for Occult Malignancy in Patients With Unprovoked Venous Thromboembolism: An Observational Study

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) can be the first clinical manifestation of an occult malignancy. We aimed to assess the value, in daily practice, of positron emission tomography combined with computed tomography (PET-CT) for occult malignancy diagnosis in patients with unprovoked VTE. All PET-CTs performed over 5-years period (from January 2009 to October 2013) in adult patients followed in the Department of Internal Medicine (Bichat Hospital, Paris, France) were retrospectively reviewed. Clinical history, imaging findings, and additional diagnostic tests performed because of PET-CT findings were analyzed. From January 2009 to October 2013, PET-CT was performed for malignancy diagnosis in 67 consecutive patients with unprovoked VTE. Seventeen patients were excluded because of congenital or acquired thrombophilia, known cancer, estrogen use, inability to confirm VTE diagnosis, or missing data. Fifty patients (25 women; mean age, 65.2 ± 15.9 years) were included. VTE was a first episode in 84% of cases. In 22 (44%) patients, PET-CT showed increased uptake suspicious for malignancy. After additional procedures, malignancy was confirmed in 12/22 patients. In all cases of confirmed malignancies, conventional computed tomography scan (CT-scan) had similar diagnosis yield, as compared with PET-CT. In 10/22 cases, the suspected diagnosis of malignancy could not be confirmed despite extensive workup including specialist visits (n = 5), magnetic resonance imaging (n = 4), gastrointestinal tract endoscopy (n = 3), endometrial biopsies (n = 2), and hysterectomy (n = 1). The cost of additional diagnosis procedures performed because of false positive PET-CT amounted to є1956/patient. Interestingly, considering CT-scan findings only, no further investigation would have been scheduled. No patient with negative or false positive PET-CT was diagnosed with cancer during a mean follow-up of 22 ± 13.6 months. A diagnosis strategy based on PET-CT screening for malignancy in patients with unprovoked VTE had limited diagnosis value and may lead to unnecessary alarming and money- and time-consuming investigations.