title: Technology Insight: advances in molecular imaging and an appraisal of PET/CT scanning.
abstract: PET/CT imaging has rapidly emerged as an important imaging tool in oncology. The success of PET/CT imaging is based on several features. First, patients benefit from a comprehensive diagnostic anatomical and functional (molecular) whole-body survey in a single session. Second, PET/CT provides more-accurate diagnostic information than PET or CT alone. Third, PET/CT imaging allows radiation oncologists to use the functional information provided by PET scans for radiation treatment planning. In this Review we discuss the technical features of PET/CT, its economic aspects within the health-care system, and its role in diagnosis, staging, restaging and treatment monitoring as well as radiation planning in patients with cancer.
authors.affiliation: Abteilung Nuklearmedizin, University of Freiburg, Hugstetterstrasse 56, 79106 Freiburg, Germany. wolfgang.weber@uniklinik-freiburg.de
authors.forename: Wolfgang A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Anca L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Grosu
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Czernin
mesh_terms: D016903:Drug Monitoring; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D011880:Radiotherapy Planning, Computer-Assisted; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018511:Systems Integration; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends
chemical_list: D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18