| Theme | Update of PET Diagnosis for Cancer of Digestive Organs | |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Current Use of PET for Esophageal Cancer Diagnosis | |
| Publish Date | 2009/03 | |
| Author | Hiroyuki Kato | Department of General Surgical Science, Gunma University, Graduate School of Medicine |
| Author | Makoto Sohda | Department of General Surgical Science, Gunma University, Graduate School of Medicine |
| Author | Hiroyuki Kuwano | Department of General Surgical Science, Gunma University, Graduate School of Medicine |
| [ Summary ] | Accurate pre-treatment staging, particularly in regard to depth of tumor invasion, lymph node involvement, and distant metastases, is vital in determining the most appropriate procedures for the management of esophageal cancer. Conventional anatomical imaging procedures, including computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), are available for the pre-treatment staging of esophageal cancer. Those imaging methods that rely on detection of the structural changes caused by tumors are inaccurate in determining the extent of esophageal cancer, especially lymph node metastasis. Recent studies have reported on the efficacy of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) for staging of esophageal carcinoma FDG-PET imaging is noninvasive and provides qualitatively different information compared to CT imaging, due to its reliance on the metabolic functions of tumors rather than tumor size alone. Furthermore, FDG-PET imaging may facilitate diagnosis in patients with malignant diseases by enabling differentiation between benign and malignant tumors, assessment of the extension of disease, monitoring response to therapy, detection of tumor recurrence, and predicting prognoses in patients with malignancies. In this article, we review the effectiveness of FDG-PET imaging in the clinical assessment of esophageal carcinoma. |
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