Cancer Treatment Today

Positron emission tomography (PET) is an imaging procedure that is unique by virtue of its ability to image biochemical reactions and physiological functions. This is accomplished by measuring concentrations of radioactive chemicals that are partially metabolized in the body region of interest. PET with fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) has been quite successful in the imaging evaluation of a large number of tumor types. Prostate cancer, however, has variable

Lay Summary: PET is ocasionally useful in staging sarcoma but not well accepted for restaging. Diagnostic procedures, such as PET scan and CT scan, may help doctors predict a patient's response to treatment and may help plan the best treatment. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as doxorubicin and ifosfamide, work in different ways to stop the growth of tumor cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing. Giving chemotherapy

Any unecessary exposure that is not supported by credible literature is inappropiate and should be avoided. Several articles comment on radiation exposure from CT scans. Trigaux and Lacrosse recognize that computed tomography is a diagnostic procedure that involves relatively high radiation doses. Crawley et al confirm that as a diagnostic imaging modality, CT gives higher patient radiation dose in comparison with other imaging modalities. In the

PET with 2-[fluorine 18]-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) has recently received attention, and growing evidence suggests its superiority in the staging of lung cancer. However, PET is more frequently used in evaluating patients with NSCLC to identify surgical candidates. It is less commonly used in patients with SCLC because most of these patients are not candidates for surgery. PET may be useful for evaluating cases in which recurrent disease but

FDG PET is not very sensitive in staging prostate cancer. Studies of C-11 suggest that it may be useful in the assessment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, glial and meningeal brain tumors, and prostate cancer. C-11 acetate may accumulate more than FDG in prostate cancer; the reasons and modulating factors for this observation are unclear. Shreve and colleagues showed, in an in vitro study, that cellular retention of radiolabeled

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy measures levels of different metabolites in body tissues and produces an image of resonances that correspond to different molecular arrangements of the "excited" isotopes. Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) in addtion incorporates imaging to produce spatially localized spectra from within the sample or patient. The role of MRS in diagnosis and therapeutic planning has not been established by adequate clinical

Tumors of ganglion cell origin including ganglioneuroma, neuroblastoma glioblastoma and ganglioneuroblastoma, all dopamine using cells, are appropriate for visualization using L-DOPA PET technology. These tumors accumulate decarboxylate 5'-hydroxytryptamine and L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (L-DOPA), and these can be used instead of FDG as the contrast agent. This modality is also being explored in neuroendocrine cancer imaging.One study revealed

Thymoma is a n uncommon cancer of the thymus. Limited information is available about sensitivity and specificity of PET for thymojma. Unfortunately, baseline thymic uptake is common. One study examined thymic uptake at 18F-FDG PET in 94 patients ranging from 18 to 29 years of age and found that 32 of these patients exhibited normal physiologic thymic uptake. The criteria for "normal" in these patients included a normal thymus identified at CT, absence

Staging is the process of finding out how far the cancer has spread. Staging of mesothelioma is based on imaging studies such as x-rays, CT scans, and MRI scans. Earlier studies indicate that PET holds great promise for Earlier studies indicate that PET holds great promise for diagnosing mesothelioma and determining mesothelioma staging, or the extent to which tumors have spread. At the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, researchers evaluated

Castleman's disease, also called angiofollicular lymph node has two forms, localized and a multicentric. The clinical and biological signs are varied and heterogeneous, and the diagnostic is made on the histologic examination. There are no expert assessment, guidelines or consensus statements, policy statements or formal technology assessments for this disease. Only case reports about PET in this condition are found in the literature. Sensitivity