Head and neck carcinoma (HNC) is one of the common malignancies in the world. Because of its deep location and complicated surroundings

patients usually receive definitive radiotherapy or concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Early prediction has significant importance to guide physicians in making treatment decisions. Traditional imaging techniques have obvious limitations. However

positron emission tomography (PET)

as a non-invasive functional imaging

allows quantitative assessment of many biologic processes before the anatomic changes

such as proliferation

apoptosis and hypoxia. PET/CT is more and more widely used in HNC nowadays. This article reviewed the advances of clinical application of PET/CT in HNC in this paper