What is a PET scan most commonly used for?

What is a PET scan most commonly used for?

A PET scan is most commonly used in oncology patients with cancer. We use it for the initial diagnosis of cancer and also for the initial staging of cancer. That basically means how extensive is cancer at the time of initial diagnosis. Then it can be used for treatment evaluation. If a patient receives some sort of treatment, for example, surgery, chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and wonder is that therapy working or not, we can use FPG PET, for example, to answer that question. And also in patients who have already been treated, it can be used to see if the cancer is returning. That's what we call recurrence of cancer and also extent of the metastasis. And finally it can be used for prognostication to evaluate how well the patient is going to do specifically after treatments.