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Head and Neck, An Issue of PET Clinics

Over 47,000 cancers of the head and neck are diagnosed each year in the United States. Traditionally, CT and MRI have been the keystones for surgical and radiation therapy treatment planning; however, anatomic imaging relies on size and morphologic criteria for distinguishing benign from malignant lymph nodes. FDG-PET may be particularly helpful to distinguish post-treatment changes from recurrent tumor in the neck following surgery or radiation therapy. PET/CT imaging provides more accurate diagnosis, and even though evaluating PET/CT images of the neck can be challenging, these images can have a significant impact on patient management.