Comparison between CT- and FDG-PET-defined target volumes for radiotherapy planning in head-and-neck cancers

Received 28 June 2009; received in revised form 25 September 2009; accepted 29 September 2009. published online 02 November 2009.

Abstract

Nine patients with head-and-neck cancer underwent computerized tomography (CT) simulation and [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) to compare the radiotherapy target volumes. The PET volumes were delineated with an automatic segmentation based on the source-to-background ratio. The volume comparison showed a reduction and qualitative discrepancies between the PET- and CT-volumes.

Keywords: Radiotherapy planning, FDG-PET, Head-and-neck cancer, Target volumes, Automatic segmentation

a Department of Nuclear Medicine; and

b Department of Clinical Oncology and Radiation Oncology, CHRU Bordeaux, France

c Department of Radiation Oncology, Institut Bergonié, Bordeaux, France

d Department of Oto-rhino-laryngology, CHRU Bordeaux, France

Corresponding author. Address: Department of Radiotherapy, Institut Bergonié, 229, cours de l’Argonne, 33076 Bordeaux Cedex, France.

PII: S0167-8140(09)00558-1

doi:10.1016/j.radonc.2009.09.010

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