Development of oncology protocol using fluorine-18-FDG: one center's experience.

The major types of cancer studied at the authors' facility were colorectal (107 patients), head and neck (122 patients), gastric/esophageal (57 patients), lung (59 patients) and lymphoma (26 patients). This article presents guidelines and techniques for obtaining optimal PET studies. The authors devised these guidelines through trial and error and hope that by sharing them other facilities can avoid unnecessary mistakes and achieve better quality studies more efficiently.