Disease free survival for the 42 study patients was 71 percent and 66.9 percent at two and three years respectively. The cumulative incidence of recurrence was 18.7 percent. The study also found that standard uptake value is not a good predictor of local recurrence and that dose escalation based on standard uptake value is unlikely to be a fruitful treatment strategy.

"PET/CT provides a higher level of confidence that we are not missing tumors as we attempt to lessen treatment side effects by delivering radiation therapy that tightly conforms in three dimensions to a given tumor volume," said Christopher Schultz, M.D., professor of radiation oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "Most importantly the PET/CT guided conformal radiotherapy was clearly no worse, and based on our early results may in fact lead to superior clinical outcomes as compared to CT only planned radiotherapy."


ASTRO is the largest radiation oncology society in the world, with 9,000 members who specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. As the leading organization in radiation oncology, biology and physics, the Society is dedicated to improving patient care through education, clinical practice, advancement of science and advocacy.

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