¹⁸F-FDG PET-CT in the Management of Patients Receiving Definitive Radiotherapy for Malignancies of the Head and Neck

Figure 2

(A) True positive PET-CT: 61-year-old man with poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the right tonsil, clinical stage T4 N3. (a) PET-CT for staging and planning for IMRT. (b) PET-CT 6 months later, following tonsillectomy, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. Region containing focal metabolic activity was shown to contain residual malignancy on biopsy. (B) True negative PET-CT: 59-year-old man with squamous cell carcinoma of the base of tongue, clinical stage T2, N2c, and M0. (a) Staging PET-CT demonstrated the primary malignancy with nodal metastases. (b) Four months later and two months following completion of IMRT with concurrent Cisplatin therapy, PET-CT showed resolution of hypermetabolic activity and decrease in size of a left level II internal jugular lymph node. The patient is without evidence of recurrence 13 months later.