title: Molecular imaging in the management of gynecologic malignancies.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this review is to summarize literature pertaining to clinical roles of positron emission tomography (PET) or integrated PET and computed tomography (PET/CT) scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and emerging techniques of these two molecular imaging tools for gynecologic malignancies.
  
  
  METHODS
  PubMed and MEDLINE databases search for articles published before June 2014 was performed. Only English-language articles were considered. Search terms included "cervical cancer", "endometrial cancer", "uterine cancer", "uterine sarcoma", "ovarian cancer" and "vulvar cancer", in association with "FDG", "PET", "PET/CT", "MRI", "PET/MR", "diffusion", "spectroscopy" and "clinical trial".
  
  
  RESULTS
  Topics explored included PET, PET/CT and MRI for diagnosis of malignancy, prognostic implications, clinical staging of disease extent, monitoring treatment response, post-therapy surveillance, diagnosis of treatment failure and restaging, and follow-up after salvage therapy in gynecologic malignancies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Molecular imaging (mainly PET and MRI) plays important roles in the management of gynecologic malignancies. Molecular imaging has various impacts in different clinical scenarios. Emerging technologies will continuously improve our practice. Prospective studies with defined endpoints are necessary to evaluate roles of these novel tools in management of gynecologic malignancies.
authors: Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan. Electronic address: sh46erry@ms6.hinet.net.
authors: Chyong-Huey
authors: CH
authors: Lai
authors: Department of Medical Imaging and Intervention, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors: Gigin
authors: G
authors: Lin
authors: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors: Tzu-Chen
authors: TC
authors: Yen
authors: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors: Feng-Yuan
authors: FY
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005833:Genital Neoplasms, Female / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D057054:Molecular Imaging; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
keywords: FDG; Gynecologic malignancies molecular imaging; MRI; PET; PET/CT; Spectroscopy