Prognostic role of FDG positron emission tomography in gastric cancer patients following treatment

Abstract

astric cancer is the 5th most common cancer worldwide and the third most common cause of cancer related death. Complete surgical resection and lymph node dissection is considered the potentially definite therapy for complete cure and long-term survival, however despite successful surgery, the five-year survival rate is approximately 35%; and even with adjuvant chemo and radiotherapy in selected patients, the survival rate is about 40%. After curative surgery, about 80% of the patients die within a short period of time from loco-regional recurrence (87%) and/or distant metastasis (30%). 18FDG PET/CT is a relatively new imaging modality combining functional and anatomical imaging. It is a promising modality for use in different subtypes of gastric malignancy as it demonstrates the metabolically active distant metastasis, the peritoneal metastasis, and the normal-sized but affected lymph glands; moreover, it is also considered a valuable imaging tool in the follow-up of the therapeutic response in the patients. 18FDG PET/CT has a wide spectrum of proposed uses in gastric malignancy; some of them are comprehensively studied while others are still under investigation. We observed a new potential use of 18FDG PET/CT in the assessment of response in gastric cancer patients after receiving treatment so we were concerned with the detection of recurrences in the gastric neoplasm in the treated cases in addition to the nodal and