OBJECTIVE To evaluate the role of whole-body {18F} fluro-2-dexoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) scans in the detection of recurrent cervical cancer.METHODS Between June, 2000 and January, 2006, 25 patients had undergone a PET scan at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital to evaluate possible recurrent cervical cancer. All the PET findings were reviewed and compared to available clinical data to classify each PET scan result as a true positive, true negative, false positive, or false negative.RESULTS A total of 38 PET scans were conducted on the 25patients whose median age was 46 years. The Stage distributions were IA (n = 1), IB (n = 11), IIA (n = 5), IIB (n = 4), IIIB (n = 2), WB (n= 1), and unknown Stage (n = 1). There were 22 cases of squamous cell carcinoma and 3 cases of adenocarcinoma resulting in 9 true positive PET scans, 27 true negatives, 2 false positives and no false negatives. The sensitivity of the FDG PET scans for detecting recurrent cervical cancer was 100%, specificity 93.1%, positive predictive value 81.8%, and negative predictive value 100%.CONCLUSION The whole body FDG PET scans are a sensitive and specific imaging modality for the detection of recurrent cervical cancer. However the cost of PET scans is too high at this time. A large prospective study will determine whether this modality should be used routinely and take the place of other imaging methods in the early detection of recurrent cervical carcinoma