الفهرس 
Histopathology of the skin
Standardized Uptake Value:Only 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Cutaneous melanoma accounts for approximately 5% of all malignant skin cancers. Although it is an uncommon tumor, melanoma considered to be very aggressive because of its ability to metastasize in early stages of the disease. Survival rate is inversely proportional to the stage, with early detection and diagnosis being the key to achieving surgical cure.
FDG-PET has a wide application in oncology because of its significant role in cancer diagnosis, staging, restaging and therapeutic response. While standard imaging techniques are based on differences in the structure of tissues, PET with the glucose analogue 18FDG is based on the enhanced glucose metabolism of cancer cells.
FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose) is an analog of glucose used as a radiotracer in order to detect tumor cells which are distinguished to have elevated glucose uptake. It is a well-known fact that tumor cells have high metabolic needs of glucose, lipids and amino acids. PET imaging is based exactly on this distinctive feature of tumors, which explains the high sensitivity and specificity of the method when it refers to cancer diagnosis, staging and therapeutic response monitoring. Glucose, as well as oxygen, growth factors and nutrients are critical factors that ensure the progress of cancer cells into solid tumors by activating their specific metabolic pathways.
Our study involved 50 patients (28 males and 22 females) with age range from 28-74years and mean 55.94+ 13.04 years. All our patients were histopathologically proven to have malignant melanoma and demonstrated blood glucose levels below 150 mg/Dl. Malignant melanoma is more common in males more than females