Observational Study on High-Resolution PET-CT Imaging of Tumor Tissue Removed During Cancer Surgery

In cancer, cells multiply uncontrollably and can invade healthy tissue, displacing or damaging it. During cancer surgery, it is not always possible to determine with certainty whether the tumor tissue has been completely removed; therefore, the excised tissue is subsequently examined under a microscope in the laboratory (histopathology). Among other things, this examination checks whether tumor cells are still detectable at the margins of the excised tissue. This histopathological examination is considered the gold standard for evaluating the margins. In positron emission tomography combined with computed tomography (PET-CT), a weakly radioactive tracer is administered; this tracer accumulates more strongly in metabolically active tissue, with PET making this accumulation visible and CT showing exactly where it is located within the tissue. This study uses a high-resolution PET-CT scanner that does not examine the patients themselves, but rather exclusively the tissue specimen that has already been removed following surgery.

The goal of this observational study is to investigate how well the results of a high-resolution PET-CT scan of the excised tissue correlate with the results of the histological examination and with the long-term course of the disease. Only data from the treatment that is taking place anyway will be collected and analyzed. There is no assignment to study arms, and the treatment itself is not altered by the study. The study examines how well the images of the specimen correlate with the histological examination, how they are assessed during surgery, how they influence medical decisions, and how the disease progresses over the long term. To this end, data will be collected both retrospectively from patients who have already undergone surgery and prospectively from future surgeries. In total, the study is expected to last about five years.

Patients aged 18 and older who are scheduled for or have already undergone surgical tumor removal, and whose excised tissue is successfully examined using this PET-CT, are eligible to participate. Patients must consent to the use of their medical records. Pregnant and breastfeeding women are not eligible to participate.