Research progress on the application of dual energy CT in gastric diseases

Background and Objective: Early detection and precise preoperative staging of benign and malignant gastric tumors are crucial for tailoring personalized treatment strategies and improving patient prognosis. Dual-energy CT (DECT), through material decomposition techniques, provides multiparametric quantitative information. This enables a transition in gastric imaging from a single morphological assessment to a comprehensive "morphological and functional" evaluation. This review aims to systematically elaborate on the latest advances in the clinical application of DECT for gastric tumor evaluation and other gastric diseases. Main content: This article reviews recent literature, focusing on the progress of DECT in the diagnosis and treatment of gastric tumors, as well as clinical studies based on quantitative DECT parameters. Key areas covered include the improvement of early detection rates, differentiation of benign and malignant lesions, precise preoperative staging, and therapeutic response assessment. Conclusion: Dual-energy CT provides rich, multidimensional quantitative metrics for the comprehensive evaluation of gastric tumors, significantly enhancing diagnostic performance and precision. With hardware upgrades and deep integration with artificial intelligence technologies such as deep learning, DECT is poised to play a more central role in the precision medicine and longitudinal management of gastric cancer.