PET/CT
PET and CT in one machine, so hot spots on the PET are pinned to exact locations on the CT.
The default form of clinical PET. Total-body PET/CT scanners (uEXPLORER, Biograph Vision Quadra) image the whole body simultaneously with 40x sensitivity, enabling ultra-low-dose and dynamic imaging.
How it works
Sequential PET and CT acquisition on one gantry; CT provides attenuation correction and anatomic localisation.
- Anatomy plus biology
- Standard for lymphoma, lung, melanoma, head and neck staging
- CT radiation added to PET dose
Fluciclovine F-18 was the first PET tracer approved for finding recurrent prostate cancer after treatment (2016), and has been largely superseded since 2020 by PSMA PET.
A PET scan that shows which breast cancer deposits still have oestrogen receptors, helping decide whether hormone therapy will work when biopsy is impractical.
The PET scan for neuroendocrine tumours that finds far more disease than older scans and confirms eligibility for lutetium radioligand therapy (the theranostic pair).
Patients newly diagnosed with an advanced grade 2 or 3 neuroendocrine tumour of the gut or pancreas that shows somatostatin receptors on imaging can now receive lutetium dotatate as their first treatment, gaining more than a year of additional disease control and a much higher chance of tumour shrinkage. It does not settle whether radioligand therapy is better than other first-line options such as capecitabine-temozolomide or everolimus, and long-term marrow safety with earlier use needs surveillance.
Men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer that has progressed after hormonal therapy and chemotherapy, and whose tumours show PSMA on a PET scan, can now receive lutetium-PSMA, which extends life, controls pain and is usually better tolerated than further chemotherapy. It has established a new treatment class in which a scan decides who gets the matching radioactive drug, and it is now being tested earlier in the disease (PSMAfore, PSMAddition).
A blood test can find early, treatable cancers in people who feel well, including cancers for which no screening exists. It is not a replacement for mammography or colonoscopy but a possible addition. Larger randomised trials are needed to show benefit outweighs harm.
Latest papers
topQuery for this technology: (TITLE:"PET/CT" OR ABSTRACT:"PET/CT" OR TITLE:"total-body PET" OR ABSTRACT:"total-body PET") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about PET/CT, not a curated reading list.