RESUMEN
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To testify the efficacy of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) in the diagnosis of cancer.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 170 patients with diagnosed cancer or suspicious cancer were enrolled in this study, and underwent 18F-FDG PET. The standard uptake value (SUV) and diameter for each abnormal region in PET images were analyzed. All data were analyzed by SPSS 11.5.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>PET scan identified a primary cancer in 45.8% (11/24) patients. The sensitivity and specificity of PET scan in differentiating malignant lesions from benign ones were 78.8% (52/66) and 77.1% (27/35) respectively. Twenty-nine out of 68 (42.6%) lesions were detected earlier by PET than by computed tomography. The SUV of primary cancer was significantly higher than that of metastatic lymph nodes (5.84 +/- 3.12 vs. 3.14 +/- 2.24, P<0.001). And SUV of primary lung cancer was also significantly higher than that of metastatic lung cancer (6.30 +/- 3.01 vs. 2.86 +/- 2.37, P<0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>18F-FDG PET plays a very important role in cancer diagnosis.</p>