PET/CT is considered to be the preferred noninvasive method for staging lung cancer as it provides improvement in image interpretation. This improvement is based on more precise localization of lesions, better differentiation between non-involved and involved nodal lesions as well as the distant lesions.
PET/CT is extremely useful for therapy response assessment due to its capacity to distinguish between residual metabolically active tumor and areas of necrosis and fibrosis, thus identifying which of these patients have achieved satisfactory functional remission and which of them need further treatment. PET/CT has superiority over conventional imaging in detecting the post-operative local tumoral recurrence even before anatomic changes are visible.