Radio-Clinico-Pathologic Factors of False Negative F-FDG PET/CT Results in the Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

(PET) and computed tomography (CT) are increasingly used for oncologic imaging. In particular, positron emission tomography with fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG PET/CT) is suggested as a more useful modality for accurate, non-invasive imaging in predicting the prognosis and staging of breast cancer (1-4). The combination of positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) provides functional metabolic information (PET) and morphologic information. FFDG PET/CT has been evaluated for primary breast cancer detection and diagnosis, staging of locoregional and distant sites, and monitoring the response to therapy in previous studies (5-7). Although F-FDG PET/CT is widely recognized as a useful diagnostic tool, it produces false-negative results in 12% of cancer cases (8). J Korean Soc Radiol 2010;62:491-496