title: Radiotherapy response evaluation using FDG PET-CT-established and emerging applications.
abstract: Radiation therapy is a common component of curative cancer treatment. However, there is a significant incidence of treatment failure. In these cases, salvage surgical options are sometimes appropriate. Accurate assessment of response and early recognition of treatment success or failure is therefore critical to guide treatment decisions and impacts on survival and the morbidity of treatment. Traditionally, treatment response has depended upon the anatomical measurement of disease. However, this may not correlate well with the presence of disease, especially after radiotherapy. Combined positron emission tomography (PET) and CT imaging employs radioactive tracers to identify molecular characteristics of tissues. PET imaging exploits the fact that malignancies have characteristic molecular profiles which differ compared with surrounding tissues. The complementary anatomical and functional information facilitates accurate non-invasive assessment of surrogate biomarkers of disease activity.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, UK.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cliffe
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, UK.|2 Department of Nuclear Medicine, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, UK.
authors.forename: Chirag
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Clinical Oncology, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, UK.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Prestwich
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, UK.|2 Department of Nuclear Medicine, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, UK.|4 Leeds Institute of Cancer and Pathology, University of Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Scarsbrook
mesh_terms: D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D000072078:Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18