Role and Place of PET/CT in the Assessment of Skin Melanoma Prevalence

   Skin melanoma is potentially the most dangerous form among all tumor skin lesions. According to statistics, melanoma accounts for about 90% of deaths. The cause of high mortality of patients is early metastasis. At the same time, melanoma metastases can be localized in almost all organs and tissues. In addition to local and regional metastasis to the skin, subcutaneous tissue and lymph nodes, metastatic melanoma of distant organs is not uncommon, and this dramatically worsens the prognosis of the disease. High-quality instrumental diagnostics at various stages of patient management (from primary diagnosis to treatment control) allow to reduce mortality and increase the overall survival of patients. Positron emission tomography in combination with computed tomography (PET/CT) has been used in the last decade as a dominant imaging method for initial staging, control of treatment and detection of progression or recurrence of various types of cancer, including melanoma. It is of great practical importance for predicting survival outcomes, assessing the risk of disease progression, as well as the effectiveness of radiation and systemic therapy. It is PET/CT that allows to simultaneously evaluate the condition of all organs and tissues with minimal radiation load being more sensitive and specific imaging method in comparison with ultrasound, CT and magnetic resonance imaging. PET/CT with ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose is the most effective method for early detection of asymptomatic melanoma recurrence. In addition to accurate setting the tumor process stage, this method is crucial to ensure adequate and effective treatment, which in turn will increase the life expectancy of this category of patients in the near future.

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