Study of 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FluGlucoScan) in Patients Receiving a Treatment Planning Study of 3 Dimensional Conformal Radiation Therapy Guided by Breath Held CT and PET Imaging for Patients With Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

At this time, computed tomography (CT) is the standard tool used at this institution for the staging of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). For most patients, treatment planning for NSCLC is performed with the patient breathing freely during CT scanning. However, recent research has demonstrated that, by holding one's breath briefly, the NSCLC tumor mass can be held motionless. As a result, the tissue to be treated is better pinpointed and the area treated is significantly decreased through breath-hold planning. This allows for a higher dose of radiation to be given to the cancer. PET scanning is a promising newer imaging modality which has shown to be useful in staging NSCLC. This study hypothesizes that breath-held PET scanning and breath held-CT scanning will allow for more stringent radiotherapy plans, minimizing normal tissue toxicity, as well as potentially increasing the dose deliverable to the primary tumor.