W. Mohnike and G. Hör: PET/CT Atlas—ein interdisziplinärer Leitfaden der onkologischen PET/CT Diagnostik (PET/CT Atlas—an interdisciplinary guide for PET/CT diagnosis in oncology)

Abstract

Experts all over the world agree that PET/CT is one of the most rapidly emerging imaging modalities in oncology. Clinical acceptance has been accelerated by the fact that the combined metabolic–morphological fusion imaging offered by PET/CT scanners overcomes the lack of lesion localisation on PET alone. For many years, clinicians have been used to morphological imaging, and before nuclear medicine offered this combined imaging modality they had difficulty in accepting PET imaging alone for daily practice. This book, written in German, covers most aspects of PET/CT imaging in oncology. It is divided into 15 chapters, including an introduction to the topic, a chapter on the basics of PET and PET/CT, 11 clinical chapters, one chapter on radiotherapy planning and a concluding chapter on future aspects of molecular PET. Wolfgang Mohnike from the Diagnostic Centre of Berlin and Gustav Hor, who was Director of the Centre of Radiology at the J.W. Goethe University of Frankfurt, provide an excellent atlas on PET/ CT for nuclear medicine physicians, radiologists and also our clinical colleagues who are interested in modern imaging modalities in oncology. The introduction starts with a historical overview followed by different aspects of PETand PET/CT, including the basics of physics and biochemistry, cost effectiveness, technical developments, indications for PET and PET/CT, and the influence of PET/CT on the increase in PET investigations; it also gives an insight into the PET screening programmes in Japan and Taiwan. The second chapter, on the physical and technical basics of PET and PET/CT, is excellently written by Thomas Beyer, a well-known pioneer of PET/CT, who, together with David Townsend, developed the first prototype of this combined imaging modality. This chapter provides important information about PET radioisotopes and tracers and offers a clear and well-illustrated insight into the technical principles of PET and PET/CT. It also covers the differences between the commercially available PET/CT scanners, the advantages and disadvantages of different crystals, imaging protocols, the arguments for and against the use of intravenous and oral contrast media, pitfalls and possible artefacts, and radiation protection aspects. Chapters 3–12 describe the use of PET/CT in the most accepted indications in oncology, including (in order) lung, gastroenterological, gynaecological, urological, head and neck and thyroid cancers, malignant melanoma, lymphoma, bone cancers, paediatric cancers and carcinoma of unknown primary, and chapter 13 covers miscellaneous aspects. Each chapter starts with a clinical introduction, including epidemiology, pathogenesis, treatment options, conventional imaging and other information, although this is not consistently done for all clinical topics, and describes accepted and special indications according to the different tumour entities. This introductory part of each clinical chapter is followed by a large number of interesting cases. In all cases an anamnesis, the PET/CT report and a conclusion are provided. The quality Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging (2007) 34:963–964 DOI 10.1007/s00259-007-0382-9