ICML 2015 Poster Session: Hodgkin lymphoma: PET-CT or bone marrow biopsy?

Zeinab Ali Abou Yehia et al, Houston, TX, USA / by Maria Dalby.  PET-CT scans appear to be more sensitive than bone marrow biopsies for detecting bone marrow involvement in stage IV HL.

A group of researchers at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas performed a retrospective analysis of 187 eligible HL patients treated at the centre between April 1999 and March 2014 to determine the degree of concordance between PET-CT and bone marrow biopsies for identifying bone marrow involvement, and investigate the prognostic significance of a positive bone marrow biopsy when the PET-CT scan is negative. The kappa coefficient for the agreement between PET-CT and bone marrow biopsy was 0.446, indicating intermediate concordance. Approximately one in three PET-positive patients (31.4%) had a negative bone marrow biopsy; conversely, one PET-negative patient in ten (10.3%) had a positive bone marrow biopsy. Patients in this latter group had significantly lower five-year relapse-free survival rates (83.5% vs 64%; p=0.03).

The authors concluded that there is utility in bone marrow biopsies for detecting bone marrow involvement even in the PET-CT era.