Lung cancer and positron emission tomography with fluorodeoxyglucose

Over the past years, positron emission tomography (PET) with fluoro-2-deoxy -D-glucose (FDG) has emerged as an important imaging modality. In the thora x, FDG-PET has been shown to differentiate benign from malignant pulmonary lesions and stage lung cancer. Preliminary studies have shown its usefulnes s in assessing tumor recurrence, and assisting in radiotherapy planning. FD G-PET is often more accurate than conventional imaging studies, and has bee n proven to be cost-effective in evaluating lung cancer patients. This revi ew will discuss the current applications of FDG-PET as compared with conven tional imaging in diagnosing, staging, and following patients with lung can cer. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.