F-18 FDG PET/CT practice guideline in oncology

Abstract

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a tomographic imaging method that shows three-dimensional distribution of radiopharmaceuticals which are labelled with positron emitter radionuclides. Today most widely used PET radiopharmaceutical F-18 flourodeoxyglucose is an F-18 labelled glucose analogue, and it is trapped by membrane glucose transporters to viable cells. F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake is proportional to glucose consumption of the tissue. In several type of cancers, increased glucose consumption is seen due to increased GLUT expression and hexokinase activity. F-18 FDG PET is a proved sensitive method in the diagnosis, staging, restaging and treatment response evaluation for several oncological disease. This practice guideline aims to help nuclear medicine physicians, physicists and technicians as persons who apply, evaluate and report F-18 FDG PET/CT by providing general information of F-18 FDG PET/CT. Additionally it is focused to provide standardization of quality of diagnostic imaging and harmonization of obtained quantitative information.