Positron emission tomography/computed tomography for staging and restaging of head and neck cancer: comparison with positron emission tomography read together with contrast-enhanced computed tomography.

This retrospective study aimed to describe the differences between image readings done with combined positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) and PET read together with contrast-enhanced CT (ceCT) in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. In 46 patients, no differences were found between the two readings for assessing infiltration of adjacent structures (P=.63), transgression of the midline (P=.67), lymph node involvement (P=.32), and T- and N stage. PET/CT and PET read together with ceCT have comparable diagnostic yield.