Methods of anatomical and metabolic imaging in head and neck region tumors

Abstract

The incidence of head and neck cancer (HNC) ranges from 5.5% to 6.2% of general cancer incidence in Poland as well as in other European countries and in the US. Precise evaluation of the clinical stage in this group of patients allows for personalized treatment, inter alia, to choose proper surgery technique, to plan and verify radiation therapy. It is a result of availability of wide spectrum of imaging methods currently used in oncology. These methods are also used in the suitable assessment of antineoplastic therapy effects, which gives the chance of early detection of cancer progression.

Methods of imaging diagnostics — anatomical and metabolic — differ in terms of sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy. Each of them has advantages and disadvantages in imaging of HNC, hence, choice of treatment method should not be made based on single imaging modality. Increasingly, information obtained from alternative imaging studies support optimal decision in everyday clinical practice.

This review describes clinical usefulness of currently available morphological and metabolic imaging methods in HNC patients, with particular emphasis on innovative technologies, like PET/MR hybrid.