Cancer Treatment Today

Lay Summary: PET has become an accepted tool for determining the extent of newly diagnosed cervical cancer and for following effects of treatment NCCN recently (8/07) revised its staging recomendations and lists PET as a recommended staging modlity. Positron-emission tomography (PET) scan is no longer optional for ≥ stage IB2 disease and is now recommended as part of the workup. Whole-body positron emission tomography (PET) completed after cervical

Histiocytosis is a rare disease that involves histiocytes. The disease can range from limited involvement that spontaneously regresses to progressive multiorgan involvement that can be chronic and debilitating. In some cases, the disease can be life-threatening. It is approximated that histiocytosis affects 1 in 200,000 children born each year in the United States. The disease is rare and not much is known securely about how to treat it. Because

Pancreatic carcinoma is common in the United States, with approximately 30,000 patients each year diagnosed with pancreatic adenocarcinomas. Patients with inflammatory processes in the pancreas (pancreatitis) but no cancer can sometimes have high FDG uptake that is indistinguishable from cancers and, thus, must be differentiated from patients with cancer. FDG PET is being applied increasingly in pancreatic cancer diagnosis. A recent literature review

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors are the most common mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). About 5000 to 6000 new cases of GISTs are diagnosed in the United States annually. Response to conventional chemotherapeutic agents and radiation therapy is disappointing. Early experience with the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, STI-571 (Gleevec, imatinib mesylate), has been extremely encouraging and it is now an FDA approved treatment. The role

PET is often used for staging and monitoring of response for GIST tumors. A recent consensus statement says: “The panelists agreed that currently available imaging techniques to evaluate GIST include computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET). " The journal Applied Radiology (vol. 34, no. 6, 2005), in an article titled 'Role of Positron Emission Tomographic

Positron emission tomography using 2-deoxy-2-[18F] fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG-PET) has been used to detect malignancies associated with certain kinds of tumors. Data regarding the use of FDG-PET scan for evaluating gastric cancer are scarce. A recent review of studies showed that PET produced an estimated 14% change was noted in management effect, based on 109 patient studies for diagnosis/staging in gastric cancer; however, this is no randomized data.

For a initial staging, PET scan is of limited utility. While it can well assess known lymphadenopathy, it is not a sensitive staging tool. Many studies have reported low sensitivities for the detection of nodal metastases, ranging from 25–73%. Chao et al. concluded that PET/CT has a limited role in staging for patients with early-stage disease and should not replace lymphadenectomy for the detection of lymph node metastases. Many studies have

PET is not medically appropriate to follow glioblastoma because it not supported by credible scientific evidence published in peer-reviewed medical literature generally and recognized by the relevant medical community.  PET for brain cancer is not included in the NCCN guidelines and CMS does not cover PET for this diagnosis. Occasionally, PET can provide information to differentiate tumor necrosis from tumor progression. The sensitivity of PET for

Conventional PET using FDG is unsuitable for imaging bladder tumors because of its high urinary excretion. However, it is 67% sensitive, 86% specific and 80% accurate in detecting pathologic lymph nodes in patients with bladder cancer, which exceeds both CT and MRI. Although PET scans are being used as part of research projects in bladder cancer, it is not yet certain how valuable they are in helping to manage the care of patients with bladder cancer.

FDG-PET has not been studied for surveillance in patients with ATC. A limited number of reports of FDG-PET studies in patients with ATC are available. Jadvar et al described that FDG-PET correctly detected anaplastic thyroid cancer along with other rare tumors evaluation. Conti et al found positive findings in a patient with anaplastic carcinoma in a study of thyroid cancer by FDG-PET. McDougall et al also reported positive FDG-PET findings in the