The role of positron emission tomography imaging in early assessment of the antitumor impact of biologics and cytotoxics.
In the evaluation of protocols for patients with cancer, clinicians are increasingly searching for diagnostic tests that will give an accurate indication of response to therapy and predict outcome. Although standard radiologic modalities such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging can localize sites of disease and monitor changes in size of lesions, they cannot reliably determine tumor viability. Positron emission tomography provides the opportunity to quantitate parameters of tumor metabolism. There are numerous studies in the literature reviewing a wide variety of malignancies, and this is an exciting area of ongoing research.
Andrich
M P
MP
Department of Nuclear Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-1180.
Neumann
R
R
D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy*; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed