Impacto clínico de la PET con 18FDG en la selección de la terapia de los pacientes oncológicos

purpose: to determine the impact of (f18)2-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose positron emission tomography (pet-18fdg) in cancer patients. materials and methods: a standardized questionnaire of one hundred consecutive pet-18fdg oncologic studies (72 men and 22 women, with a median age of 67 years) was sent to all involved referring physicians. the questionnaire was designed to determine how the results of the pet-18fdg imaging changed the patients management. the changes were categorized as intramodality and intermodality. results: the three leading causes of referral were lung cancer (34%), colorectal cancer (24%) and solitary lung nodules (15%). pet changed patients management in 53 out of 97 evaluated cases (55%) (intramodality management in 5 and intermodality management in 48). curative surgery was changed to chemotherapy plus radiotherapy in 17 patients (17.5%). pet had some decision-making value in 69% patients and avoided unnecessary aggressive diagnostic procedures in 56%. conclusions: pet has shown to be a useful diagnostic tool in the oncological setting. it improves the initial staging of neoplasms, especially of patients with lung cancer, and characterizes the tumour recurrence, particularly in colorectal neoplasms. pet selects the most appropriate treatment in each case, avoiding unnecessary surgical interventions.