4 research outputs found
Clinical applications of positron emission tomography-computed tomography in oncology
Positron emission computed tomography (PET) is a functional diagnostic
imaging technique, which can accurately measure in vivo distribution of
a variety of radiopharmaceuticals. The ability of PET to study various
biological processes (glucose, amino acid, phospholipids, receptors
etc.) opens up new possibilities for both day-to-day clinical use and
research applications in the practice of oncology. Addition of CT to
PET has resulted in better specificity and sensitivity than either of
the modalities alone, as the combined approach has the ability to
demonstrate functional and structural details in the same setting. F-18
fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG), an analogue of glucose, is the most
commonly used radiotracer in PET-CT imaging. The F-18 FDG uptake in
tumor cells is directly proportional to glucose metabolism in the
cells. Since glucose metabolism is increased several folds in the
malignant tumors, PET-CT images show preferential higher FDG uptake in
malignant cells as compared to normal cells. F-18 FDG PET-CT has been
found to be useful in the initial staging, detection of recurrent
disease and monitoring the response to the therapy in malignancies
including lung cancer, colorectal cancer, lymphoma, melanoma,
esophageal cancer, head and neck cancer, breast cancer