Main description:

Over the past 20 years, positron emission tomography (PET) and PET/CT (computed tomography) have revolutionized the care of cancer patients in developed countries and are increasingly being adopted in emerging economies. PET has been, and still is, one of the fastest growing fields in medical imaging. There are several reasons for the rapid development of this imaging technology. As the populations of many countries continue to age, cancer constitutes a major health problem, with increasing incidence worldwide. In developed countries where heart disease is the primary cause of mortality, cancer is a close second and may eventually overtake it. Proper cancer management requires highly accurate imaging to characterise, stage, restage, assess response to therapy, prognosticate and detect recurrence. Such information is critical in a disease that often requires the correct initial treatment in order to improve the chance of successfully curing the patient. Written by experts from several continents, the book provides an up to date, evidence based and comprehensive overview of operating procedures for FDG-PET/CT imaging in adult oncology patients.