Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Key points

• Positron emission tomography (PET) uses fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) as a radiotracer to generate a 3D image of metabolic activity, using glucose uptake as a proxy marker
• Often combined with CT (PET-CT) to overlay metabolic and anatomical information
• Main uses: evaluating primary and possible metastatic disease, staging and treatment-response assessment in lymphoma, detecting residual/recurrent disease
• Cardiac PET is not yet used in mainstream clinical practice