Positron emission tomography (PET) is a diagnostic imaging technique that has progressed rapidly from being a research technique in laboratories to a routine clinical imaging modality. The most widely used radiotracer in PET is Fluorine18-fluorodeoxyglucose (F18-FDG), which is an analogue of glucose. The FDG uptake in cells is directly proportional to glucose metabolism of cells. Since glucose metabolism is increased many fold in malignant tumors PET has a high sensitivity and a high negative predictive value. PET with FDG is now the standard of care in initial staging, monitoring the response to the therapy, and management of lung cancer, colonic cancer, lymphoma, melanoma, esophageal cancer, head and neck cancer and breast cancer. Other indications of PET like bone tumor, ovarian cancer and cancer of unknown primary (CUP) has also been discussed in brief. The aim of this review article is to review the clinical applications of PET in various malignancies and only limited number of important studies will be discussed for this effort.

A prospective randomized study was conducted in our department of Radiotherapy, Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal to evaluating the role of chemoradiation in the management of advanced inoperable cervical cancer (stage IIB-IIIB) taking only radiation treatment as control spanning the period 1996-1999. Of the fifty patients accumulated in the study group, three patients did not complete treatment, one expired due to other causes and three were lost to follow up. Likewise, of the forty-six patients in the control group, one patient did not complete treatment and 4 were lost to follow up. Thus only 43 and 41 patients were available for the result analysis for the study and control groups respectively. The early treatment response as assessed after two months of treatment conclusion were 79.1%, 13.9%, 93.0% and 58.5%, 31.7%, 90.2% as complete response (CR), partial response (PR), and total response (TR) respectively for the study and control groups. Our patients included in this study had a median follow up of 35 months and 33 months for study and control groups respectively. For this follow up, the disease-free survival, survival with disease and overall survival were 67.4%, 7.0%, 74.4% and 43.9%, 12.2%, 56.1% for study and control groups respectively. There was an increase in early side-effects in the chemoradiation group but the difference was not significant. Because of the early side effects, treatment delays ensued in 7 patients (16.3%) and in 3 patients (7.3%) in the study and control groups respectively. There was no significant increase in the late treatment toxicities in both the groups.

BACKGROUND : The clinico-pathological characteristics of renal pelvic malignancies associated with stones were retrospectively analyzed. AIMS : The main objective was to define the biological behavior and prognostic factors for these malignancies. SETTINGS & DESIGN : The tumors were classified according to the pathological types. The clinical data, imaging features and pathological features were analyzed with relation to prognosis. MATERIAL AND METHODS : Eighteen cases of malignancies associated with stone disease were retrospectively studied. The institute review board permitted the study. RESULTS : High incidence (15/18) of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was noted. The prognosis in this group of patients was uniformly poor. The median survival time was 3.6 months in the SCC group, 7.5 months in the Transitional Cell Carcinoma (TCC) group and 24 months in the Adenocarcinoma (AC) group. Infectious and systemic symptoms were noted in the majority of the patients. Preoperative Imaging techniques revealed tumor in only 2 cases. Both underwent radical extirpation and the median survival is 18 months till date. In the other 16 patients, where the initial diagnosis was made only on histological analysis of incomplete nephrectomy specimens, the survival was 3.56 months. All patients had prolonged history of staghorn stone disease with associated non-functioning kidney. We found that the main prognostic factor was the stage of the disease. CONCLUSIONS : Malignancies associated with stone disease have insidious onset of clinical symptoms and need a high degree of suspicion to identify them pre-operatively. The grave prognosis associated with incomplete excision makes it imperative to diagnose them earlier.

Chemoradiotherapy is increasingly used in advanced laryngeal cancers. Failures are generally managed by surgery. They include histologically confirmed recurrent or residual disease or a symptomatic life threatening treatment sequelae. Tumour recurrence or residivism can be managed by chemotherapy when radical surgery is either refused by the patient or if the general condition of the patient do not permit it. However surgery becomes inevitable when life threatening treatment sequelae like absolute pharyngo-oesophageal stricture and aspiration sets in.

Plasma Cell Leukemia (PCL) is a rare form of plasma cell dyscrasia. Plasma cell leukemia has two variants: the primary form presents de novo in patients with no previous history of multiple myeloma (MM); the secondary form consists of a leukemic transformation in a previously recognized MM. In contrast to myeloma, PCL has an aggressive course. Median age at presentation is usually above 50 years. Here we report a case of primary PCL presenting at age of 21 years, which is extremely rare. She was treated with combination chemotherapy (VAD). Although she had a good response initially, later the disease progressed and she died 6 months after the diagnosis.

Proximal to the anal canal, carcinomas composed in whole or in part of squamous epithelium are distinctly uncommon, accounting for 0.1 per cent of all colorectal carcinomas. Pure squamous cell carcinoma of the colorectum are extremely rare. Here we report a case of primary squamous cell carcinoma of the caecum in a 55 year old lady from South India.

A primary thoracic origin occurs only in 20% of neuroblastomas, and their classical presentation is mediastinal or cord compression. Skeletal metastases of neuroblastomas are characteristically multiple, and calvarial deposits usually show simultaneous involvement of orbit. Solitary metastases in neuroblastoma, is an unusual entity and its presentation as a large calvarial mass, especially from a thoracic primary, is rare. Furthermore, calvarial metastases are relatively uncommon in children compared to adults. We discuss the clinical, radiographic, CT features, and differential diagnosis of a large calvarial mass with sunray spiculation in a child, which was due to a solitary metastases from an occult thoracic neuroblastoma. The possibility of neuroblastoma presenting in this unique fashion and the importance of considering a chemosensitive tumor such as neuroblastoma in the differential diagnosis of a solitary calvarial mass in a child is highlighted by our report.