title: The use and misuse of positron emission tomography in lung cancer evaluation.
abstract: This article discusses the potential benefits and limitations of positron emission tomography (PET) for characterizing lung nodules, staging the mediastinum, identifying occult distant metastasis, determining prognosis and treatment response, guiding plans for radiation therapy, restaging during and after treatment, and selecting targets for tissue sampling. The key findings from the medical literature are presented regarding the capabilities and fallibilities of PET in lung cancer evaluation, including characterization of pulmonary nodules and staging in patients with known or suspected non-small-cell lung cancer. The discussion is limited to PET imaging with fluorodeoxyglucose.
authors: Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC, 2020 Zonal Avenue, IRD Room 723, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
authors: Ching-Fei
authors: CF
authors: Chang
authors: Afshin
authors: A
authors: Rashtian
authors: Michael K
authors: MK
authors: Gould
mesh_terms: D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006300:Health Services Misuse; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011379:Prognosis; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18