PET/CT in pediatric oncology

Gabriele Masselli; Cristina De Angelis; Saadi Sollaku; Emanuele Casciani; Gianfranco Gualdi

PET/CT in pediatric oncology

Am J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2020 Apr 15;10(2):83-94. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Gabriele Masselli^{1

2}, Cristina De Angelis¹, Saadi Sollaku^{1

2}, Emanuele Casciani², Gianfranco Gualdi²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiological Sciences, Oncology and Anatomo-Pathology, "Sapienza" University of Rome Rome, Italy.
² PET/CT Section, Pio XI Private Hospital Rome, Italy.

PMID: 32419977
PMCID: PMC7218696

Abstract

The use of PET/CT in adult oncology has been consolidated by several and authoritative multicentric studies, metanalyses and systematic reviews. International guidelines help everyday nuclear medicine specialists, oncologists and radiologists in choosing the most suitable diagnostic path for each patient. Classifications based on traditional imaging and PET/CT findings define the most appropriate treatment and can predict the outcome for different types of malignancies. However, compared to adult patients the use of PET/CT in pediatric oncology is often burdened by lack of systematic and large multicentric studies and consequently accurate and precise guidelines. The cause of this shortage of large trials may be attributed to the rarity of these neoplasms and to the fear of long-term radiation effects on this peculiar category of patients. The aim of this article is to review the applications of PET/CT for imaging the most common pediatric neoplasms.

Keywords: PET/CT; oncology; pediatric.

Publication types

Review