[Role of 18F-FDG positron emission tomography in surgical evaluation]

Positron emission tomography (PET) using F-18-fluorine-deoxy-glucose (FDG) as a metabolic marker is a non-invasive diagnostic tool that can distinguish malignant processes from normal tissue by means of increased glycolysis. Since the advent of whole-body scanning, its higher spatial resolution compared with conventional scintigraphic methods leads to widespread applications of FDG-PET in oncology. The clinical value of FDG-PET has been proven for a number of tumor entities. As will be shown in the following review for bronchial, colorectal and pancreatic malignomas, functional imaging with FDG-PET provides relevant diagnostic information complementary to morphologic imaging.