Limitation of 2-deoxy-2-[F-18]fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) to detect early synchronous primary cancers in patients with untreated head and neck squamous cell cancer.

Objective: Patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) often develop synchronous multiple primary cancers. It is important to detect second primary cancer in HNSCC patients, because it influences treatment selection of primary cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of 2-deoxy-2-[F-18]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) for detecting synchronous primary cancers at the initial staging of patients with HNSCC.