title: Fluorodeoxyglucose-PET in the management of malignant melanoma.
abstract: FDG-PET is of limited use in patients with early-stage disease without nodal or distant metastases (stage I-II), because sentinel node biopsy is much more sensitive in detecting microscopic lymph node metastases. Because of the high tumor-to-background ratio, FDG-PET can highlight metastases at unusual sites that are easily missed with conventional imaging modalities. PET has been shown to have a strong role in detecting metastatic disease. FDG-PET is more sensitive than CT for detecting metastatic lesions in skin, lymph nodes, and abdomen, but CT is equivalent to or more sensitive than FDG-PET for detecting small pulmonary lesions. FDG-PET identifies the location and number of metastatic lesions in stage III and IV disease and therefore is important for surgical planning. Most of the false-negative FDG-PET results are caused by micrometastases and lesion smaller than 10 mm. Postsurgical inflammation, other inflammatory lesions, and some benign tumors cause some false-positive FDG-PET results.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Radiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 110 Donner Building, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Rakesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Ayse
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mavi
authors.forename: Gonca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bural
authors.forename: Abass
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alavi
mesh_terms: D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18