PET/MRI: The future of cancer restaging

The re-staging of cancer is one of the main oncological problems faced in the present day. Restaging can lead to the emergence of surgical therapy alternatives for a down-staged cancer, or to the consideration of secondary or tertiary chemotherapies for an up-staged cancer. That said, with the application of one of the surgical, radiotheraphy(RT) or chemotherapy(CT) protocols, complications may occur, and restaging becomes difficult. Another difficulty may be encountered in explaining to the patient that additional therapy protocols may be needed after an accurate restaging. After surgery, RT or CT, renal, hepatic and bone marrow reserves may severely be decreased, and since the primary therapy protocol may reduce significantly the patient's performance status, "accurate restaging" is the most important problem to be resolved when planning further therapy.