Utility of 18F-FDG PET in Evaluating Cancers of Lung*

PET has seen rapid progression in recent years, with appli-cations in oncology leading the way. The glucose analog 18F-FDG is the most commonly used PET radiopharmaceu-tical and has been shown to accumulate avidly in several different neoplasms, including cancers of the lung. The fol-lowing discussion will review the physiologic basis for the uptake of 18F-FDG in lung neoplasms and demonstrate the utility of 18F-FDG PET in lung cancer. A brief review of other PET radiopharmaceuticals in lung cancer imaging, and dual-modality PET/CT scanners, will be presented. Upon com-pletion of this article, the reader should be able to describe the pharmacokinetics of 18F-FDG and discuss the efficacy of 18F-FDG PET scans in the evaluation of solitary pulmonary nodules, disease staging, and monitoring response to ther-apy. Additionally, the reader should be able to compar