Measuring Intratumoral Metabolic Heterogeneity by Positron Emission Tomography in Cervical Cancer–A Review

Abstract

Measurement of intratumoral heterogeneity by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a valuable modality, which showed correlation to response of treatment and prognosis in various malignancies. PET-based texture analysis for tumor heterogeneity is a potential predictive factor for cervical cancer and related to lymph node metastasis, tumor volume, response of treatment, and pelvic recurrence. Although seemed promising in utility in oncology, a plenty of methods have been used for analysis of heterogeneity which led to confusion of definitions and comparing results challenging. Further larger sized prospective studies are needed for standardized heterogeneity descriptors and clinical applications.