title: [Clinical utility of PET-CT for esophageal cancer].
abstract: It is important to diagnose the exact clinical staging according to the improvement of treatment for esophageal cancer. PET examinations for esophageal cancer are now covered by Japanese government health insurance, so the number of PET scans is now gradually increased in many institutions and their utility has been reported. In this report, we reviewed the conventional diagnostic tools for esophageal cancer and evaluated the clinical significance of PET-scans conventionally associated with it. The depth of tumor invasion of a primary tumor is detectable in more than 80% of cases of SM2 or deeper invasion. With lymph node metastasis, the sensitivity was 66. 7% and specificity 93. 5%. With distant metastasis, there is reportedly a high detection rate in bone metastasis and liver metastasis. However, with lung metastasis, reference to CT scans rather than PETscans is important in making a carefull diagnosis. In judging the effect of preoperative chemoradiotherapy, PET-CT was suggested to be an effective diagnostic tool. In addition, PET may be a useful diagnostic tool for postoperative follow-up patients. Finally, further investigation may well be necessary in the future.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Surgery, Hyogo College of Medicine, Hyogo, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshinori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
authors.forename: Nobuaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kaibe
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Hidetaka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koishi
authors.forename: Shojirou
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sasako
authors.forename: Shuji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawata
authors.forename: Naohiko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Oku
authors.forename: Thoru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kashiwagi
mesh_terms: D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000175:diagnosis; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*