Breathing Synchronized PET/CT Scans for the Detection of Lung Lesions and Assessment of Tumor Glycolysis

In this particular study the physicians want to use a new technique of how they obtain the
PET/CT pictures. It is called "deep-inspiration breath-hold (DIBH) PET/CT". As the name
suggests, they will ask the patient to hold their breath for about 20-30 seconds, and only
during that time will they obtain pictures. This is repeated several times. In contrast to
the standard PET/CT scan, they expect less "blurring" of the pictures, so that they can see
the tumor better and measure the uptake of radioactive sugar in the tumor better and more
reliably. Basically, this is the difference between taking pictures of a runner as compared
to taking pictures of a person standing still. Since PET images need to be obtained over
several minutes and people can not hold their breath for this extended time, we break the
procedure into several cycles of 20-30 seconds (or longer, if possible) and then add all the
"frozen" pictures in the end into one. They want to know if DIBH PET/CT scan measure
changes in the cancer during therapy (i.e., from the baseline scan before radiation therapy
to the follow up scan at 1-2 weeks later).