Chapter 4 – Gastroesophageal Cancer

Gastric cancer is the fifth most common cancer worldwide. There is a widely accepted consensus of the usefulness of FDG PET/CT in staging and restaging of gastric cancer. In addition to clinical information, benign findings, pitfalls in FDG PET/CT reading, and teaching cases, this chapter reviews evidence-based recommendations regarding PET/CT examination in gastric and esophageal cancers and compares them with statements in major clinical guidelines. According to evidence-based data, this modality can evaluate gastric cancer more accurately and is helpful for evaluation of tumor biologic characteristics, detection of lymph node and distant metastases, assessment of tumor response to therapy. and prediction of prognosis. Esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer worldwide. According to evidence-based data, FDG PET/CT plays an important role in staging and restaging of esophageal cancer, as well as evaluation after neoadjuvant therapy. It is also a strong predictor of therapy response and an independent predictor of overall survival in patients with nonmetastatic esophageal cancer.