title: PET/CT of cancer patients: part 1, pancreatic neoplasms.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Pancreatic cancer continues to have a poor prognosis despite impressive improvements in the outcomes of many other types of cancer, often because most pancreatic neoplasms are found to be unresectable at diagnosis. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of pancreatic cancer and the role of modern imaging in its diagnosis and management with an emphasis on (18)F-FDG PET/CT fusion imaging.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Multimodality imaging is critical in the diagnosis and management of pancreatic cancer. PET/CT is increasingly viewed as a useful, accurate, and cost-effective modality in diagnosing and managing pancreatic cancer, but further studies are warranted. Early data suggest that contrast-enhanced PET/CT performed with modern PET/CT scanners yields high-resolution anatomic information for surgical and radiotherapeutic planning and functional information for whole-body staging in the care of patients with this disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Dibble
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Karantanis
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mercier
authors.forename: Patrick J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Peller
authors.forename: Lisa A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Kachnic
authors.forename: Rathan M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Subramaniam
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18