Objectives: CT-PET is a combination of anatomic and metabolic information provided by two different technologies. These aspects are fundamental in the evaluation and follow up of malignancies. Despite the economical situation of our country, we received the support from Simón Bolívar University (USB), Central University of Venezuela (UCV), the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Health in order to achieve the development of CT/PET in Venezuela. The objective of this study is to share our experience with CT/PET in oncologic patients.
Methods: We reported one thousand (1000) cases of patients who underwent CT/PET with FDG over a period of two years in our center, the most common studied malignancies, their indications, and diagnostics.
Results: The average age was 56 years (range 1-91). Sixty two percent of the patients were masculine. The more frequent malignancies were hematopoietic (16%), lung (11%), prostate (9%), breast (8%), and colon (7%). The indications were screening of a tumor in healthy patients (30%), differential diagnosis (20%), staging (19%), and restaging (15%). Sixty five percent of the studies were reported as positive for cancer.
Conclusions: Is necessary to increase our experience in CT/PET but so far our data is similar to many centers all over the world.
