FDG-PET: An Important Tool in the Diagnosis of Lung Cancer

ing by FDG-PET (in conjuction with CT) is significantly superior to CT alone with a negative predictive value for mediastinal manifestation equal or even superior to mediastinoscopy [2, 3]. FDG-PET also improves extrathoracic staging by detection of lesions missed by conventional imaging. Concerning investigational accuracy in NSCLC, FDGPET is superior to CT, and combined PET-CT is superior to both single procedures (with figures for sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy of 100, 81, 71, 100, and 87%, respectively in a large current review, [4]). Therefore, FDG-PET and CT (integrated or synchronous) should be a routine staging procedure in the diagnosis of lung cancer (NSCLC and also SCLC [5]). After a troublesome learning process of more than 15 years even the German health system will be able to recognize the importance of FDG-PET in oncology.