Clinical application of positron emission tomography (PET) is rapidly increasing for the detection and staging of cancer at whole-body studios performed with 2-[fluorine-18]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG). Although many cancers can be detected by FDG-PET, there has been limited clinical experience with FDG-PET for the defection of gynecological cancers including malignancies in uterus and ovary. FDG-PET can show foci of metastatic disease that may not be apparent at conventional anatomic imaging and can and in the characterization of indeterminate soft-tissue masses. Most gynecological cancers need to surgical management. FDG-PET can improve the selection of patients for surgical treatment and thereby reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with inappropriate surgery. FDG-PET is also useful for the early detection of recurrence and the monitoring of therapeutic effect. In this review, I discuss the clinical feasibility and limitations of this imaging modality in patients with gynecological cancers.

Recurrence of colorectal cancer after apparently curative resection remains common, with reported relapse rates of up to 40%. Because complete resection of solitary metastases or local recurrence may improve long-term survival, surgical management of such cases has become increasingly aggressive but has led to only modest survival benefit. The limitations of current approaches based on structural imaging are well documented, with over half of the patients who are thought suitable for curative surgery being found to have unresectable disease at operation. Therefore, better preoperative assessment is crucial. The increasing use of FDG-PET as an oncologic staging investigation has significantly improved the assessment of patients with suspected colorectal cancer recurrence. Several studios show that substantial and largely appropriate changes in patient management occur, often soaring patients the significant morbidity and mortality associated with aggressive but futile therapies while also saving scarce community resources. Nevertheless, the clinical relevance of these findings has still been questioned. The utility of PET in routine clinical practice will likely depend on its ability to provide incremental information compared with CT in selected patients rather than to serve as a replacement for CT. In conclusion, in patients with suspected recurrent or metastatic colorectal carcinoma, FDG-PET should be performed (1) when there is rising carcinoembryonic antigen levels in the absence of a known source, (2) to increase the specificity of structural imaging when there is an equivocal lesion, and (3) as a screening method for the entire body in the preoperative staging before curative resection of recurrent disease.

With the advent of multidetector-row CT, lung cancer imaging is much more promising than before. However, the effectiveness of multidetector-row CT in making an initial diagnosis, staging, and evaluating post-treatment changes of lung cancer still remains to be proved. Fast imaging along with volumetric data set and attendant multi-planar imaging provide much more details on the anatomic changes and pathology associated with lung cancer. However, with images showing anatomic and pathologic changes only, radiologists confront with several questions the answers of which may help evaluate lung cancer more thoroughly. The frequent questions that I have in dally practice of chest CT interpretation are as follows.

Lymphoma is a group of neoplastic disease of lymphoid tissues, which can be classified into categories of Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma(NHL). Prognosis of lymphoma depends on the extent of disease(staging) especially in Hodgkin's disease, but also depends on the histologic make up in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Although non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is a neoplastic transformation of lymphoid cell it is a collection of disease with merphologically and immunologically diverse make up. Consequently the classification of NHL has changed frequently and evolved according to the progress of immunologic and molecular knowledge added to the original morphologic classification. Lymphoma is a disorder sensitive to chemotherapy which often leads to cure of the disease even in advanced stage, while many other patients die from the progression of disease. Therefore, better understanding in newer classification and sensitive imaging technique, such as PET, in lymphoma will likely lead to the improvement of survival rate.

Positron Emission Tomography(PET) was introduced as a research tool in the 1970s and it took about 20 years before PET became an useful clinical imaging modality. In the USA, insurance coverage for PET procedures in the 1990s was the turning point, I believe, for this progress. Initially PET was used in neurology but recently more than 80% of PET procedures are in oncological applications. I firmly believe, in the 21st century, one can not manage cancer patients properly without PET and PET is very important medical imaging modality in basic and clinical sciences. PET is grouped into 2 categories : conventional(c) and gamma camera $based_{(CB)}$ PET. $_{CB}PET$ is more readily available utilizing dual-head gamma cameras and commercially available FDG to many medical centers at low cost to patients. In fact there are more $_{CB}PET$ in operation than cPET in the USA. $_{CB}PET$ is inferior to cPET in its performance but clinical studies in oncology is feasible without expensive infrastructures such as staffing, rooms and equipments. At Ajou university Hospital, CBPET was installed in late 1997 for the first time in Korea as well as in Asia and the system has been used successfully and effectively in oncological applications. Ours was the fourth PET operation in Korea and I believe this may have been instrumental for other institutions got interested in clinical PET. The fellowing is a brief description of our clinical experience of FDG CBPET in oncology.