Management and prognosis of cervical cancer patients treated with definitive radiation therapy who have partial metabolic response on post-therapy positron emission tomography

•Partial metabolic response on initial restaging FDG-PET presents a diagnostic and prognostic challenge.•Initial restaging FDG-PET has a false positive rate of 53%, necessitating biopsy for patients desiring early salvage therapy.•Serial FDG-PET scans are diagnostically valuable, with markedly improved predictive values compared to a single scan.•Optimal treatment of PMR is uncertain, with surgical salvage conferring the highest possibility of cure.