FDG-PET and FDG-PET/CT in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most frequent malignant disease in women worldwide and the second leading cause of cancer death in Western countries. In Germany, 46,000 women per year suffer from breast cancer. Of these women, 18,000 died from it [1]. In the USA, 211,240 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in women in 2004 and 40,410 died from it. The incidence has been increasing from 1940 until the present, to 110 per 100,000 women annually, and is higher in white women then in African-Americans. Statistics indicate that one in nine women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime [2].