Intérêt de la tomographie à émission de positons dans la prise en charge du cancer broncho-pulmonaire

18 FDG- PET is an imagining technique based on metabolic criteria rather than morphological criteria. (18) FDG- PET can demonstrate accelerated glycosis in cancer tissue related to increased transporter and glycolytic enzyme activity. Whole body PET is currently under validation in a growing number of indications during diagnostic and therapeutic assessment phases of cancer treatment. In the field of pulmonary oncology, (18) FDG- PET has already demonstrated its performance capacity to: 1) discriminate the malignant nature of a solitary pulmonary nodule, 2) improve sensitivity over CT for mediastinal assessment in small-cell lung cancer, 3) acquire whole body imaging to search for distant metastasis in patients with small-cell lung cancer; PET is particularly useful for evaluation of an adrenal mass, 4) complement CT imaging to better dissociate tumor residue or recurrence from post-therapeutic sequelae in small-cell lung cancer. Information provided by (18) FDG- PET is thus clinically relevant as it allows better dissociation of a benign process from a malignant process and better precision of small-cell lung cancer extension without necessitating systematic invasive exploration.