PET/CT
PET and CT in one machine, so hot spots on the PET are pinned to exact locations on the CT.
Overview
PET/CT acquires PET and CT sequentially on one gantry; the CT provides attenuation correction for the PET data and pins each hot spot to an exact anatomical location. In clinical use since 2001, it is the default form of clinical PET and the standard for staging lymphoma, lung cancer, melanoma and head and neck cancer, combining anatomy with biology in one examination. Total-body PET/CT scanners such as the uEXPLORER and Biograph Vision Quadra image the whole body simultaneously with around 40 times the sensitivity of conventional scanners, enabling ultra-low-dose imaging and dynamic studies that follow tracer kinetics over time. The main drawback is that the CT adds radiation to the PET dose, which matters most in children and in patients scanned repeatedly. PET/CT is two scans in one machine so the biology shown by PET can be read against the anatomy shown by CT.
- Detector ring
- Tracer uptake
- 511 keV photon pair
- CT ring
How it works
Sequential PET and CT acquisition on one gantry; CT provides attenuation correction and anatomic localisation.
- Anatomy plus biology
- Standard for lymphoma, lung, melanoma, head and neck staging
- CT radiation added to PET dose
Dependencies
Open the dependency map →Dependencies are what this technology cannot be delivered without: manufacturing steps, instruments, software, upstream methods. See its full chain on the map.
An injectable tracer that sticks to a marker (somatostatin receptor) many neuroendocrine tumours carry. A PET scan afterwards shows where those tumours are, including small deposits that other scans can miss.
An experimental PET tracer for prostate cancer that binds the same target as approved PSMA scans (PSMA) but, because its radioactive tag lasts longer, can be re-imaged a day later to catch small deposits the first picture missed. It is not yet approved for sale.
A brain-tumour PET tracer that shows where active tumour tissue is by how much it grabs a labelled amino acid, which helps tell a true regrowing tumour apart from scan changes caused by past treatment. Approved by the FDA in September 2026, the first scan of its kind cleared for this use in the US.
Fluciclovine F-18 was the first PET tracer approved for finding recurrent prostate cancer after treatment (2016), and has been largely superseded since 2020 by PSMA PET.
The radioactive sugar used in almost every cancer PET scan, approved in the 1990s and made fresh each day by regional cyclotrons.
A tracer originally built to look at brain dopamine cells in suspected Parkinson's disease. Because certain hormone-producing tumours use the same chemical machinery, doctors also use it, off-label, to find those tumours -- especially adrenal gland tumours called pheochromocytoma.
A PET scan that shows which breast cancer deposits still have oestrogen receptors, helping decide whether hormone therapy will work when biopsy is impractical.
The PET scan for neuroendocrine tumours that finds far more disease than older scans and confirms eligibility for lutetium radioligand therapy (the theranostic pair).
A cousin of the Ga-68 DOTATATE and Cu-64 DOTATATE scans: it sticks to the same receptor on neuroendocrine tumours and lets PET find them. It is FDA-approved but, unusually, has no brand name and no pharmaceutical-company sponsor.
An experimental PET tracer that lights up the scaffolding cells cancers build around themselves, not the cancer cells directly. It is still being tested, not yet an approved medicine.
Telix's ready-to-label kit that lets any nuclear medicine department make the gallium PSMA scan for prostate cancer.
Novartis' gallium PSMA scan kit, approved the same day as Pluvicto as the test that qualifies men for that radioactive drug.
A radioactive form of fluoride that collects in areas of bone rebuilding. A PET scan after the injection shows those hot spots, which can be cancer that has spread to bone or something harmless like a healed fracture.
Patients newly diagnosed with an advanced grade 2 or 3 neuroendocrine tumour of the gut or pancreas that shows somatostatin receptors on imaging can now receive lutetium dotatate as their first treatment, gaining more than a year of additional disease control and a much higher chance of tumour shrinkage. It does not settle whether radioligand therapy is better than other first-line options such as capecitabine-temozolomide or everolimus, and long-term marrow safety with earlier use needs surveillance.
Men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer that has progressed after hormonal therapy and chemotherapy, and whose tumours show PSMA on a PET scan, can now receive lutetium-PSMA, which extends life, controls pain and is usually better tolerated than further chemotherapy. It has established a new treatment class in which a scan decides who gets the matching radioactive drug, and it is now being tested earlier in the disease (PSMAfore, PSMAddition).
A blood test can find early, treatable cancers in people who feel well, including cancers for which no screening exists. It is not a replacement for mammography or colonoscopy but a possible addition. Larger randomised trials are needed to show benefit outweighs harm.
Latest papers
topQuery for this technology: (TITLE:"PET/CT" OR ABSTRACT:"PET/CT" OR TITLE:"total-body PET" OR ABSTRACT:"total-body PET") AND (radiopharmaceutical OR radioligand OR radionuclide OR theranostic OR "nuclear medicine" OR "molecular imaging" OR radiotracer OR scintigraphy OR cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about PET/CT, not a curated reading list.
Similar pages
not linked directly; found by shared links- IsotopeGallium-68
Shares HER2 Targeted Molecular Imaging in mBC and Other Metastatic Solid Carcinomas Using 68Ga-ABS011, Investigating the Safety and Diagnostic Performance of 68Ga-NYM032 Injection PET/CT in Men With Newly Diagnosed Prostate Cancer., This Study Evaluates the Diagnostic Performance and Safety of 68Ga-NYM032 PET/CT Imaging in Patients With Suspected Recurrence of Prostate Cancer., Biodistribution and Dosimetry of Ga-68 P16-093 in Prostate Cancer.
- TermTheranostics
Shares Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, NETTER-2: lutetium-177 dotatate as first treatment for higher-grade gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours, Illuccix (kit for Ga-68 gozetotide), Locametz (kit for Ga-68 gozetotide).
- TargetSomatostatin receptor 2
Shares An inflammation tracer that does not need a diet, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, Molecular imaging roadmap: FDG → PSMA → FAP → antigen and immune PET, Copper-64 dotatate.
- TechnologySPECT & bone scan
Shares Mediso, Attenuation correction, CT, MRI and PET scanner manufacturing, Siemens Healthineers.
- TechnologyFAPI PET
Shares Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Gallium-68 FAPI-46, FES PET (oestrogen receptor imaging), FAP imaging to stop futile pancreatic surgery.
- TechnologyQuantitative imaging biomarkers (RECIST, PERCIST, SUV, ADC)
Shares Strontium-82/rubidium-82 generators, PET-adapted (response-adapted) therapy, Attenuation correction, FES PET (oestrogen receptor imaging).
- TermDosimetry
Shares International Atomic Energy Agency: Rays of Hope, Total-body PET for screening and ultra-low-dose imaging, NETTER-2: lutetium-177 dotatate as first treatment for higher-grade gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours, Total-body PET for personalised radioligand dosing.
- TechnologyPET/MRI
Shares GPC3 imaging of the indeterminate liver nodule, led from China, United Imaging, Siemens Healthineers, Molecular imaging roadmap: FDG → PSMA → FAP → antigen and immune PET.
indications
8isotopes
1fronts
3technologies
14drugs
13companies
5institutions
8terms
2trials
6roadmaps
3ideas
2opportunities
13key papers
3journals
1Open tools
All open tools by front →Open-source software, hardware and data projects catalogued by a third party, the Open Medical Registry, that bear on this technology. Listing is not endorsement; check each project's own licence and validation before clinical use.
- ai4elifeMITsoftware
This data-centric AI repository implements a robust deep learning method (LFBNet) for fully automated tumor segmentation in whole-body [18]F-FDG PET/CT images.
From the Open Medical Registry (openmedical.sh), an MIT-licensed catalogue of open-source medicine. Blurbs are one line from each registry record; every project keeps its own licence.