This study sought to prospectively evaluate the influence of contrasted fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDGPET/CT) in the staging of and impact on the management plan for treatment in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). A total of 14 histologically proven NPC patients (mean age: 44.64±4.01years) were included in the study. These patients underwent contrasted Computed Tomography (CT) as well as 18F-FDGPET/CT imaging. Staging was based on the 7th edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer Tumor Node Metastases (AJCCTNM) recommendations.The oncologist was asked to prospectively assign a treatment plan for all patients being evaluated by CT and 18F-FDGPET/CT. The treatment plans were compared with the incremental information supplied by the FDG-PET/CT. The maximum standardised uptake value (SUVmax) and the widest dimension of the primary tumour, cervical lymph nodes size and the distant metastatic lesions were quantified on the co-registered PET/CT images by two experienced nuclear radiologists. The contrasted 18F-FDGPET/CT changed the management intent in nine patients (64.7%). A univariate analysis showed that there were significant correlations between SUVmax and the size of the metastatic
lymph nodes (R2 =0.0761, p