The current status of positron-emission tomography scanning in the evaluation and follow-up of patients with head and neck cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Functional imaging has increasingly become an important diagnostic tool for head and neck cancer and as its availability increases so will its utilization. Positron-emission tomography using the radiotracer [18F]fluoro-2-deoxy--glucose is the most commonly used functional imaging technology and it has the potential to improve the staging and detection of head and neck tumors compared with conventional imaging techniques such as computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging.


RESULTS
The combination of [18F]fluoro-2-deoxy--glucose and positron-emission tomography contributes valuable information in localizing a primary tumor in patients with an unknown primary and neck metastases, in the staging of primary head and neck cancer, in the detection of residual disease following definitive chemoradiation, and in the detection of recurrent disease. New technologies have been recently introduced using the combination of computed tomography and positron-emission tomography that allows exact anatomical correlation with areas of increased tracer uptake. In addition, new tracers may allow quantification of important cellular processes related to tumor proliferation or identification of tumors that may respond to certain targeted therapies.


CONCLUSIONS
[18F]Fluoro-2-deoxy--glucose and positron-emission tomography are increasingly being used as a clinical imaging modality in the complex management of head and neck cancer. In particular, its clinical value in the evaluation of the unknown primary, and the evaluation of recurrent or residual disease, is well established and has shown to be more accurate than conventional imaging modalities.
Division of Head and Neck Surgery, Department of Otolaryngology, New York University Medical Center, New York, NewYork 10021, USA.
David I
DI
Kutler
Richard J
RJ
Wong
Heiko
H
Schoder
Dennis H
DH
Kraus
D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009382:Neoplasms, Unknown Primary / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18