Planning treatment for patients with cancer relies heavily on imaging information to establish tumor stage at presentation and to assess tumor response to treatment. It is also becoming increasingly desirable to define precisely the tumor target to deliver various forms of local treatment as accurately as possible. Because different imaging modalities have different inherent soft tissue contrast properties, use of several imaging modalities in a stepwise approach is common.
Computed tomography (CT) is the most commonly used technology in the evaluation of patients with cancer. Advances in technology of spiral CT with multiple detectors has significantly improved its efficacy and allows for rapid image acquisition of large parts of the body with thin slices during a single breath hold and, if desired also for whole-body scanning. However, the soft tissue contrast properties of CT for tumor staging are limited in terms of tumor delineation and metastases detection, even when intravenous contrast enhancement is used.1 The introduction of integrated positron emission tomography (PET) and CT (PET/CT) scanners is a potentially ideal solution to circumvent this limitation. This technology adds functional tumor information obtained through injection of radiolabeled metabolites, most notably the glucose analog tracer [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose. Areas of increased metabolic uptake identified by PET can now be combined with superior spatial resolution of CT. The strength of this approach is further augmented if combined whole-body scanning can be performed in an acceptable imaging time.
Register and get free email Table of Contents alerts, saved searches, PowerPoint downloads, CME quizzes, and more
Subscribe for full-text access to content from 1998 forward and a host of useful features
Activate your current subscription (AMA members and current subscribers)
Purchase Online Access to this article for 24 hours
Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature
Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal
Instructions
Thank you for submitting a comment on this article. It will be reviewed by JAMA editors. You will be notified when your comment has been published. Comments should not exceed 500 words of text and 10 references.
Do not submit personal medical questions or information that could identify a specific patient, questions about a particular case, or general inquiries to an author. Only content that has not been published, posted, or submitted elsewhere should be submitted. By submitting this Comment, you and any coauthors transfer copyright to the journal if your Comment is posted.
* = Required Field
Disclosure of Any Conflicts of Interest* Indicate all relevant conflicts of interest of each author below, including all relevant financial interests, activities, and relationships within the past 3 years including, but not limited to, employment, affiliation, grants or funding, consultancies, honoraria or payment, speakers’ bureaus, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, royalties, donation of medical equipment, or patents planned, pending, or issued. If all authors have none, check "No potential conflicts or relevant financial interests" in the box below. Please also indicate any funding received in support of this work. The information will be posted with your response.
Some tools below are only available to our subscribers or users with an online account.
Download citation file:
Web of Science® Times Cited: 12
Customize your page view by dragging & repositioning the boxes below.
More Listings atJAMACareerCenter.com >
The Rational Clinical Examination Evidence Summary and Review 2
The Rational Clinical Examination Other Radiological Modes Including MRI. A comprehensive review of all radiological modes...
All results at JAMAevidence.com >
and access these and other features:
Register Now
Enter your username and email address. We'll send you a link to reset your password.
Enter your username and email address. We'll send instructions on how to reset your password to the email address we have on record.
Need assistance?
Athens and Shibboleth are access management services that provide single sign-on to protected resources. They replace the multiple user names and passwords necessary to access subscription-based content with a single user name and password that can be entered once per session. It operates independently of a user's location or IP address. If your institution uses Athens or Shibboleth authentication, please contact your site administrator to receive your user name and password.