Positron emission tomography: clinical applications in oncology. Part 1

Abstract

Positron emission tomography is a functional diagnostic imaging technique, which can accurately measure in vivo distribution of a radiopharmaceutical with high resolution. The ability of positron emission tomography to study various biologic processes opens up new possibilities for both research and day-to-day clinical use. Positron emission tomography has progressed rapidly from being a research technique in laboratories to a routine clinical imaging modality becoming part of armamentarium for the medical profession. The most widely used radiotracer in positron emission tomography is 18F-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG), which is an analog of glucose. FDG uptake in cells is directly proportional to glucose metabolism of cells. Since glucose metabolism is increased many fold in malignant tumors, positron emission tomography has a high sensitivity and high negative predictive value. Positron emission tomography with FDG is now the standard of care in initial staging, monitoring the response to therapy and management of lung cancer, colorectal cancer, lymphoma, melanoma, esophageal cancer, head and neck cancer and breast cancer. The aim of this article is to review the clinical applications of positron emission tomography in oncology.

Targeting of VX2 Rabbit Liver Tumor by Selective Delivery of 3-Bromopyruvate: A Biodistribution and Survival Study

“…Therefore, the first aim of our study was to evaluate the biodistribution of i.a. delivered FDG is a glucose analog that accumulates in cells in a velocity that is dependent on the glycolytic rate of the cell (Gallagher et al, 1978;Kumar et al, 2005). In this study, we used FDG to monitor the effects of i.a.…”

Two cases of benign esophageal schwannoma with positive FDG-PET findings

“…In general, endoscopic biopsy cannot confirm a diagnosis, because almost all benign tumors are submucosal. [ 18 F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) is a powerful diagnostic modality useful for cancer staging, therapeutic monitoring, and follow-up evaluation of various malignant tumors [1,2]. Today, we often use FDG-PET to evaluate the malignant potential of detected submucosal esophageal tumors.…”

Intense accumulation of 18F-FDG, not enhancement on MRI, helps to guide the surgical biopsy accurately in soft tissue tumors

“…18 F-FDG PET/CT delineates the most metabolically active tumor regions. In particular, SUV values are useful for differentiating low-and high-grade tumors and, thus, also in differentiating benign and malignant masses, predicting tumor grade, staging and restaging, determining prognosis and identifying optimal biopsy sites [2,13,14]. Hain et al [2] found that most malignant sites, as determined by whole-tumor histology, correlated with biopsy sites identified by 18 F-FDG PET/ CT.…”

“…Hain et al [2] found that most malignant sites, as determined by whole-tumor histology, correlated with biopsy sites identified by 18 F-FDG PET/ CT. According to Kumar et al [14], 18 F-FDG PET/CT differentially delineates tumor tissues on the basis of glucose metabolism, and 18 F-FDG PET/CT imaging can be viewed as a form of metabolic biopsy [15].…”