Positron Emission Tomography (PET) in Oncology

摘要

Positron emission tomography is a relatively new well-known imaging modality in medicine. A glucose analog, fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG, FDG), may accumulate within cells and is proportional to the rate of glucose transport and metabolism. Using FDG as a radiotracer, FDG-PET has high sensitivity and specificity for malignant tumor detection and assessment of the pathophysiology of the tumor. Clinical usefulness of FDG-PET include: (1) early detect and diagnose malignant tumor to avoid repeatedly using other diagnosing modalities (2) accurately stage and restage malignant disease (3) evaluate the effects of certain type of therapy (4) early assess the prognosis of malignant tumor. Images obtained with a combined PET and CT (PET/CT), PET and MRI (PET/MRI) scanner can depict exact anatomic landmarks, enable precise localization of metabolic abnormalities, and correctly identify physiologic, nonspecific uptake that would otherwise be mistaken for a malignant tumor. In the future, labeling of positron emitted isotope with developing biomarker, receptor, gene probe, stem cell, and drug for PET may reach a novel medical era.