Open AccessPost-treatment appearances, pitfalls, and patterns of failure in head and neck cancer on FDG PET/CT imaging
Author(s) -
Nilendu Purandare,
Ameya Puranik,
Sneha Shah,
Archi Agrawal,
Venkatesh Rangarajan
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
indian journal of nuclear medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.261
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 0972-3919
pISSN - 0974-0244
DOI - 10.4103/0972-3919.136564
Subject(s) - medicine , head and neck cancer , positron emission tomography , magnetic resonance imaging , radiology , radiation therapy , nuclear medicine , computed tomography , head and neck , fluorodeoxyglucose , radiation treatment planning , surgery
Majority of patients with head and neck cancer are treated with combined treatment regimes such as surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. The loss of structural symmetry and imaging landmarks as a result of therapy makes post-treatment imaging a daunting task on conventional modalities like computed tomography (CT) scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as well as on 18 Fluorine-Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (18F FDG PET/CT). Combined multimodality treatment approach causes various tissue changes that give rise to a spectrum of findings on FDG PET/CT imaging, which are depicted in this atlas along with a few commonly encountered imaging pitfalls. The incremental value of FDG PET/CT in detecting locoregional recurrences in the neck as well as distant failures has also been demonstrated.