The impact of PET/CT scanning in the radioteraphy planning of non-small cell lung cancer

The impact of PET/CT scanning in the radiotherapy planning of non-small cell lung cancer Background: In the current practice of radiotherapy planning and target volume determination in patients suffering from the non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a contrast-enhanced CT is standard procedure. Contemporary studies have proven that PET/CT examination attains higher sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of lung cancer and also leads to higher accuracy in the process of target-volume delineation in NSCLC. Aim: To compare radiotherapy plans made according to CT and PET/CT examinations in the same patient and to investigate the impact of changes in target volume sizes on tumor control probability (TCP) and normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) and the impact of combined PET/CT examination on the staging of the disease and treatment strategy. Materials and Methods: Between October 2008 and November 2013, 42 patients suffering from pathologically proven inoperable locally advanced NSCLC that were referred to radical radiotherapy were involved in our study. They all underwent planning PET/CT examination. I carried out two separate delineations of target volumes and two radiotherapy plans, both with their own dose-volume histograms (DVH). I compared the following parameters of radiotherapy..