Review Article

The Role of Fluorine-18-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography in Evaluating the Response to Treatment in Patients with Multiple Myeloma

Table 1

Characteristics of the studies using FDG-PET or PET/CT to monitor treatment response in multiple myeloma.

AuthorsYearCountryStudy designDiagnosisTreatment
(no. of patients)
No. of patientsDevice Posttherapy FDG-PET findingsComplete remission
Persistence of FDG uptakeNormalization of FDG uptake

Jadvar and Conti [9]2002USAProspectiveMMCRT (2)
CT + BMT (1)
3PET211
Mileshkin et al. [15]2004AustraliaRetrospectiveMMRT6PET33ns
Bredella et al. [16]2005USARetrospectiveMMCRT + BMT3PET122
Zamagni et al. [10]2007ItalyProspectiveMMCT + BMT23PET/CT81512
Bartel et al. [11]2009USAProspectiveMMCT239PETnsnsns
Kim et al. [17]2009USARetrospectivePLCRT11PET4 (*)79 (**)
Dimitrakopoulou-Strauss
et al. [12]
2009GermanyProspectiveMMCT19PETnsnsns
Sager et al. [18]2011TurkeyRetrospectiveMMCT10PET/CT198
Zamagni et al. [13]2011ItalyProspectiveMMCT (85)85PET/CT54 (improvement in 12)31ns
CT + BMT (192)19267 (improvement in 32)125ns
Derlin et al. [14]2012GermanyProspectiveMMBMT99PET/CTnsns40

Legend—ns: not specified; CT: chemotherapy; RT: radiation therapy; CRT: chemoradiation therapy; BMT: bone marrow transplantation; MM: multiple myeloma; PLC: solitary plasmacytoma; (*): evolution to MM in 2 patients; (**): late responses in 2 patients.