title: [Roles of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in the management of colorectal cancer].
abstract: In diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer, PET/CT has high sensitivity and specificity in comparison to other modalities, and in the near future is expected to play important roles in these areas. However, because of the high cost, PET/CT must be used cost-effectively. In the diagnosis of colorectal cancer with PET/CT, evaluation of cancer growth is possible, but evaluation of tumor invasion is inadequate. In the diagnosis of lymph node metastases, PET/CT provides higher sensitivity of evaluation in distant lymph nodes. The reason for difficulty in proximal lymph node evaluation is due to the close proximity of the main cancer tumor. In the diagnosis of liver metastases, meta-analysis indicates the need for higher sensitivity and specificity compared to CT and MRI. In the diagnosis of pulmonary metastases, chest CT should be obtained in very early pulmonary metastases because of the tiny tumor size in the early stage. In the diagnosis of local recurrence, discrimination between postoperative change and recurrence is difficult, but PET/CT is very useful as a qualitative diagnostic tool. Recent reports have also indicated the usefulness of PET/CT in the evaluation of treatment efficacy in chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Surgery II, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Japan.
authors.forename: Yoshiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bamba
authors.forename: Michio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Itabashi
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tada
authors.forename: Kunitomo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miyake
authors.forename: Takuzo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Tomoichiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirosawa
authors.forename: Shimpei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.forename: Kazuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aratake
authors.forename: Akiyoshi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seshimo
authors.forename: Shingo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kameoka
mesh_terms: D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000175:diagnosis; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed