Abstract
Positron emission tomography (PET/CT) with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) is a well established method in oncological practice.Malignant melanoma (MM) typically belongs to the tumours with high FDG-avidity. The highest impact of FDG PET/CT in the diagnosisof MM is in the primary staging and restaging of advanced stages (AJCC III-IV).
FDG PET/CT can be used in the case of clinicallysuspected disease relapse. The evidence level is currently insufficient to define the exact value of FDG PET/CT in the therapy effectassessment (mainly for novel therapeutic modalities as immunotherapy and kinase inhibition).
Limited number of research studiesshow that FDG PET/CT could have prognostic impact in this setting. It can be useful in the evaluation of systemic metastases ofnon-cutaneous MM.
Conversely FDG PET/CT seems to have low value in the primary staging of early stage cutaneous MM (AJCC I-II).Unspecific nature of FDG and the tendency to produce false positive findings must be kept in mind in clinical practice.