Incidental findings on 18-FDG PET–CT in head and neck cancer. A retrospective case-control study of incidental findings on 18-FDG PET–CT in patients with head and neck cancer

Purpose Use of 18-FDG PET–CT is increasing in patients with head and neck cancer, enabling the identification of metastases or synchronous malignancies, but also ‘incidental’ disease. We aimed to establish the rate of ‘incidental’ findings resulting from 18-FDG PET-specific imaging, that would not have been otherwise identified on other imaging, in patients with head and neck cancer undergoing staging or surveillance of disease.