Investigation about the importance of respiratory gated fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography-computerized tomography images in the identification of lung lesions? size, location and boundary

Lung cancer is the most common seen cancer in the whole world and compromises the 12.3% slice among all cancers diagnosed in each year. This high incidence show us once more time the importance of early diagnostic imaging methods in taking lung cancer under control. As in many other cancers, FDG PET-CT hybrid imaging is an indispensable part of diagnosis, staging and evaluation of response to treatment in lung cancer. Respiratory behaviors are among the most important factors that affect the diagnostic performance of PET-CT negatively. Therefore in this study, we aimed at investigating the diagnostic importance of respiratory gated FDG PET-CT imaging in the identification of lung lesions? size, location and lesion characterization. This study was carried out with the aim of prospective evaluation between the September2012 and June, 2013 on 7 patients who have lung cancer or diagnosed with cancer suspicion. It has been determined that respiratory behaviors can be controlled with FDG PET-CT and the size and standard uptake value (SUVmax) is measured more correctly. Nevertheless, it has also been confirmed that this method is new and does not have common utilization area in our country. As a conclusion, RG FDG PET-CT technique is an important clinical tool that advance the quantitative evaluation in the diagnosis of lung lesions, enhance the confidence of clinician in reporting, reduce the unclear symptoms, increase the total accuracy in the detection and characterization (benign or malign)of lung lesions. We hope that the benefits of this technique will be examined in future studies and contribute the routine usage in our country. Key Words: Lung cancer, PET, FDG PET CT, Respiratory gating, Medical imaging