Document is current

Article History

Received: 5 November 2021

Revised: 5 January 2022

Accepted: 28 January 2022

First Online: 22 March 2022

Declarations

:

: The scientific guarantor of this publication is Yaping Luo.

: The authors of this manuscript declare no relationships with any companies whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article.

: No complex statistical methods were necessary for this paper.

: Written informed consent was waived by the Institutional Review Board.

: Institutional Review Board approval was obtained.

: Some study subjects or cohorts have been previously reported in:Clin Nucl Med. 2019 Apr;44(4):321-323.Nucl Med Commun 41:1283-1290We reported one case of follicular lymphoma (FL) with spontaneous regression during “watch-an-wait” period revealed by ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT as an Interesting Image in Clinical Nuclear Medicine. Then we reported 16 patients with indolent NHL (including 9 patients with FL) treated with initial watchful waiting as an Original Article in Nuclear Medicine Communications. These patients all had baseline and at least one follow-up ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT scan. In the follow-up PET/CT, it was revealed that 4 out of 16 patients showed spontaneous regression of NHL lesions. In univariate analysis, MTV and TLG in baseline PET/CT were significant predictors for early treatment of indolent NHL under watchful waiting. However, the small sample size and heterogeneity of lymphoma types limited the statistical power. Therefore, in the current study, we selected a single indolent lymphoma type, increased the sample size, and focused on the role of baseline ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT to predict the outcome of FL in patients managed with an initial “watch-and-wait” approach.

: • retrospective• diagnostic or prognostic study/observational• performed at one institution