Positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT) in lung cancer

Background: Lung cancer is the most frequent cause of death due to neoplasm in Western populations, with > 660,000 new diagnoses of lung cancer per year according to the World Health Organization. Methods: We undertook this study to emphasize the role of positron emission tomography to all health care professionals involved in lung cancer diagnosis. Results: There are false negatives with PET-(18)FDG in carcinoids and bronchioalveolar carcinoma in almost 40% of the cases. One relatively common cause of false positives is the vocal cord and adjacent muscles contralateral and compensatory to the lung lesion that shows an increased uptake of (18)FDG because of lesions in the laryngeal nerve by the tumor or secondary to surgery. It should not be confounded with metastases. Conclusions: There is sufficient scientific evidence pointing to the usefulness of PET studies and its evolution to PET/CT, especially in patients with lung cancer. This can resolve doubts by the oncologist and patient when there is a suspicious malignant lesion by the following: characterizing solitary pulmonary nodules (benign or malignant), localizing the optimal site for the biopsy, diagnosis of the primary tumor for initial staging, evaluation of mediastinal involvement and distant metastasis, evaluating and restaging of residual tumor, assessment of recurrence, monitoring response, prognostic prediction and radiotherapy planning.