PET in lymphoma: what are the oncologist's needs?

Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) has a number of potential advantages for the oncologist in refining and improving the management of lymphomas. Currently the most promising appear to be in the early prediction of response to chemotherapy, evaluation of the residual mass and improved radiotherapy planning. Other important areas which require assessment are its value in refining prognostic indices at staging and its role in follow-up. The added value of the new combined PET-CT scanners requires careful evaluation in each of these settings, where combined morphological and functional information may provide optimal disease assessment. The ultimate aim is to improve the management of patients with lymphoma by identifying those patients who can be cured with minimal treatment and equally those for whom conventional treatment is doomed to failure and in whom more intensive strategies should be employed from the outset.