[Clinical utility of PET-CT for esophageal cancer].

It is important to diagnose the exact clinical staging according to the improvement of treatment for esophageal cancer. PET examinations for esophageal cancer are now covered by Japanese government health insurance, so the number of PET scans is now gradually increased in many institutions and their utility has been reported. In this report, we reviewed the conventional diagnostic tools for esophageal cancer and evaluated the clinical significance of PET-scans conventionally associated with it. The depth of tumor invasion of a primary tumor is detectable in more than 80% of cases of SM2 or deeper invasion. With lymph node metastasis, the sensitivity was 66. 7% and specificity 93. 5%. With distant metastasis, there is reportedly a high detection rate in bone metastasis and liver metastasis. However, with lung metastasis, reference to CT scans rather than PETscans is important in making a carefull diagnosis. In judging the effect of preoperative chemoradiotherapy, PET-CT was suggested to be an effective diagnostic tool. In addition, PET may be a useful diagnostic tool for postoperative follow-up patients. Finally, further investigation may well be necessary in the future.