Todd M. Blodgett, MD

PET/CT continues to find new applications in detection and monitoring of breast, cervical, and ovarian carcinoma. An estimated 211,000 new cases of invasive breast carcinoma, with almost 41,000 deaths, are expected to occur in the U.S. during 2007. Breast carcinoma is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy in women and ranks second in terms of cancer deaths after lung cancer.

Several oncologic imaging modalities have evolved significantly since CT was developed in 1973. Although CT provides a noninvasive method for evaluating cancer patients, first-generation scanners were limited in their speed of data acquisition and spatial resolution. Current multislice CT scanners can evaluate a patient completely, with exquisite anatomic detail, in as little as 15 to 30 seconds.