Purpose: It has been reported that gastric cancer is the sixth most common cancer found during the (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) cancer screening program, which is defined as cancer screening of asymptomatic subjects using FDG-PET(/CT) (in combination with other screening tests or not). The aim of this study was to analyze the detection rate and the effectiveness of the FDG-PET cancer screening program at detecting gastric cancer between 2006 and 2009 in Japan.
Materials and methods: A total of 153,775 asymptomatic subjects (92,255 men, 61,520 women) between 30 and 80 years old underwent the FDG-PET cancer screening program. Of these, we analyzed 790 cases with findings of possible gastric cancer in any screening test.
Results: The number of cases who were verified to have gastric cancer was 124. Among these, only 47 cases were detected by FDG-PET, which resulted in a relative sensitivity of 37.9% and a positive predictive value of 33.6%. The relative sensitivity of FDG-PET was much lower than those of gastric endoscopy and the serum pepsinogen test.
Conclusion: The FDG-PET screening program in Japan detected some cases of early-stage gastric cancer, but this was not achieved using FDG-PET alone but in combination with gastric endoscopy. Gastric endoscopy should be included in FDG-PET cancer screening programs to screen for gastric cancer.