Applications of PET in liver imaging.

Fluorodeoxyglucose PET (FDG-PET) imaging has an important role in determining if there are metastases to the liver and whether disease has spread beyond the liver. Such information is critical for planning surgical resections of liver metastases. The ability of FDG-PET quantitatively to estimate metabolic rates makes it an important tool for monitoring. With increasingly broad indications for FDG-PET imaging, it is expected that FDG-PET (and PET-CT) of the liver will play a growing and increasingly important role in detecting and monitoring treatment of tumors involving the liver.