Abstract
Cancers of the ovaries account for 4% of all cancers and 5% of all cancer deaths. Approximately 28,000 new cases of ovarian cancer occur annually in the United States. There is increasing evidence that FDG-PET is useful for staging and restaging of cervical cancer. Less promising results were published regarding the ability of FDG-PET to diagnose or stage ovarian cancer. This is because the apparent glucose metabolic activity of most ovarian cancers is relatively low. Several specific features of these cancers might account for this finding. First, tumors are frequently cystic and lack the tumor bulk required for imaging. Secondly, mucin production, frequently occurring in ovarian cancer is associated with low glycolytic tumor cell activity. FDG-PET has mainly been used to determine sites of tumor recurrence in women with rising tumor markers. This is sometimes complicated because the peritoneum is a frequent site of recurrence and physiological bowel activity can limit the ability to clearly differentiate between tumor and physiological activity. Whether PET/CT offers diagnostic advantages over PET alone has not been established.
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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Czernin, J., Dahlbom, M., Ratib, O., Schiepers, C. (2004). Gynecological Cancers. In: Atlas of PET/CT Imaging in Oncology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18517-5_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18517-5_18
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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