TY - JOUR
T1 - Technology Insight
T2 - PET and PET/CT in head and neck tumor staging and radiation therapy planning
AU - Frank, Steven J.
AU - Chao, K. S Clifford
AU - Schwartz, David L.
AU - Weber, Randal S.
AU - Apisarnthanarax, Smith
AU - Macapinlac, Homer A.
PY - 2005/10
Y1 - 2005/10
N2 - The evolving utilization of functional imaging, mainly 2-[18F] fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (18FDG) imaging, with positron emission tomography (PET) and PET/CT, is profoundly altering head and neck tumor staging approaches, radiation treatment planning, and follow-up management. Tumor-node-metastasis staging with PET/CT has improved the characterization of patient disease versus CT, MRI, or PET alone, thereby affecting patient disease management. Therefore, the utilization of PET/CT is appropriate for head and neck cancer staging in the initial presentation and in the recurrent setting. In the setting of radiation therapy treatment planning, PET-directed tumor volume contouring is not ready for clinical practice without further technological improvements in imaging specificity/sensitivity and resolution. Patient or organ motion might interfere with the accuracy of anatomical co-alignment, and variability in defining the threshold of imaging signals on PET images can affect the contour of the biological tumor volume. The use of PET/CT for staging and detecting both primary and recurrent head and neck cancer is valuable; however, its application in radiation treatment planning should be viewed as investigational.
AB - The evolving utilization of functional imaging, mainly 2-[18F] fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (18FDG) imaging, with positron emission tomography (PET) and PET/CT, is profoundly altering head and neck tumor staging approaches, radiation treatment planning, and follow-up management. Tumor-node-metastasis staging with PET/CT has improved the characterization of patient disease versus CT, MRI, or PET alone, thereby affecting patient disease management. Therefore, the utilization of PET/CT is appropriate for head and neck cancer staging in the initial presentation and in the recurrent setting. In the setting of radiation therapy treatment planning, PET-directed tumor volume contouring is not ready for clinical practice without further technological improvements in imaging specificity/sensitivity and resolution. Patient or organ motion might interfere with the accuracy of anatomical co-alignment, and variability in defining the threshold of imaging signals on PET images can affect the contour of the biological tumor volume. The use of PET/CT for staging and detecting both primary and recurrent head and neck cancer is valuable; however, its application in radiation treatment planning should be viewed as investigational.
KW - Head and neck cancer
KW - PET/CT
KW - Radiation therapy
KW - Treatment planning
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U2 - 10.1038/ncponc0322
DO - 10.1038/ncponc0322
M3 - Review article
C2 - 16205772
AN - SCOPUS:27644562324
SN - 1743-4254
VL - 2
SP - 526
EP - 533
JO - Nature Clinical Practice Oncology
JF - Nature Clinical Practice Oncology
IS - 10
ER -