Editorial: PET/CT for Cancer Diagnosis, Staging and Prognosis

Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) has been widely utilized in the clinic and in animal research for detecting and serially staging various types of neoplasms, including lymphomas, melanoma, lung cancer, thyroid cancer, head and neck cancer, esophagus and gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, gynecologic cancers, osteosarcoma, breast cancer, pheochromocytoma [1-7]. The most commonly utilized radiopharmaceutical for PET/CT is 2-deoxy-2-[18F] fluoroglucose (18F-FDG), a glucose analogue that is taken up by the cell through glucose transporters, and then phosphorylated within the cell reflecting the rate of glucose metabolism. Compared with normal cells, cancer cells have increased glucose metabolism. Accordingly, PET/CT imaging with 18F-FDG is able to reveal an increased glucose metabolism in tumors and to identify both primary neoplasm and their metastases.