01.08.2006 | Controversies
Is PET/CT necessary in paediatric oncology?
Erschienen in: European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging | Ausgabe 8/2006
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The introduction of combined PET/CT into clinical practice has been greeted with much enthusiasm among nuclear medicine physicians, radiologists and oncologists. Since the first PET/CT scanners became available, many studies have demonstrated its clinical value in various tumour types (reviews in [1, 2]). The value of PET/CT in paediatric patients, however, has not been established. Case reports, pictorial essays and reports on feasibility and practical aspects have been published, but to date no studies have evaluated the diagnostic benefit of PET/CT in children [3‐6]. A limited number of studies have evaluated the clinical usefulness of (FDG-)PET as a single modality in paediatric tumour entities. The need for such studies has been stressed by many authors [3, 6‐8]. Nevertheless, it can already be anticipated that the combination of structural and metabolic information provided by integrated PET/CT will improve the accuracy of staging and will have the potential to change management in a significant number of paediatric patients, as has been demonstrated in adults (reviews in [2, 9‐11]). …Anzeige