[Value of [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography in digestive cancerology]

COLORECTAL CANCERS: FDG-PET is a very effective tool in the follow-up of colorectal cancer for the early detection of recurrences, the search for other localisations in case of resectable lesions and for the evaluation of therapies. For the other digestive cancers, the data in the literature are less abundant and they do not yet have Marketing Authorization in France. OESOPHAGEAL CANCER: FDG-PET appears very promising for staging and detection of recurrences of oesophageal carcinomas. Pancreatic cancer Although the indication is difficult, FDG-PET appears superior to morphological techniques for the characterization and the locoregional staging of pancreatic tumours. BILARY AND GASTRIC CARCINOMAS: FDG-PET is promising but its role has to be confirmed in larger series for the detection of biliary and gastric carcinomas. OTHER DIGESTIVE TUMOURS: In cases of hepatocarcinoma, FDG-PET appears efficient only in cases of undifferentiated tumours, and in cases of malignant neuroendocrine digestive tumours, is useful in combination with somatostatin receptor imaging.