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Role of PET/CT in Melanoma

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PET/CT in Melanoma

Abstract

In line with major advances in therapy for metastatic melanoma in the last decade, there have also been significant improvements in imaging. 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT has emerged as the imaging modality of choice for identifying locoregional nodal or distant metastatic disease and also for restaging following therapy. The spatial and contrast resolution of PET has improved owing to advances in both hardware and software reconstruction. The ultimate size of disease that PET can detect depends on how metabolically active the tumour cells are within an individual lesion. On a current generation PET/CT device, disease of 8 mm or greater in size is readily detected. In some patients, however, disease as small as 2–3 mm can be detected with confidence owing to the high metabolic activity of melanoma.

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Correspondence to Michael S. Hofman .

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Hofman, M.S., Hicks, R.J. (2017). Role of PET/CT in Melanoma. In: Hofman, M., Hicks, R. (eds) PET/CT in Melanoma. Clinicians’ Guides to Radionuclide Hybrid Imaging(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54741-1_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54741-1_5

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