ROLE OF PET-CT SCAN IN LOCALLY ADVANCED HEAD & NECK CANCER: A Prospective Study

Aim: To find the role of PET-CT scan in management of locally advanced head & neck cancers. Materials & Methods: A prospective study was performed in 21 patients suffering from locally advanced head & neck cancers reporting to our centre from January 2014 to December 2015. All the patients who had T3-T4 lesions with metastatic lymph node disease were included in the study. They underwent PET-CT scan and the results were tabulated to check whether there was distant metastasis thereby altering the clinical staging of the disease. Results: Out of 21 patients, who under PET-CT scan, 9(42.8%) patients had distant metastasis to various organs. 8(38%) patients had more than one metastatic lymph nodes and 4(19%) patients had locally advanced disease with only one metastatic lymph nodal involvement. Conclusion: Though incidence of distant metastasis is less than 10 % in head and neck cancers, sometimes the clinician fail to identify the distant metastasis due to non-availability of PET-CT scan equipment or due its financial cost when the patient is not affordable. But appropirate steps must be taken based on the clinical symptoms of the patients which must not be ignore by the surgeon and PET-CT scan needs to be done which can change the whole treatment management of the patient.