title: Positron emission tomography as a tool for translational research in oncology.
abstract: Growing knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of oncological disease plays a key role in the improvement of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors. In this review, positron emission tomography (PET) is described as a mediator between molecular oncological research and clinical management of tumor patients. The most promising applications of PET in the near future include tumor imaging with newly developed tracers for diagnosis, staging and grading purposes, therapy monitoring with proliferation and apoptosis markers and definition of the tumor environment (e.g. hypoxia, neoangiogenesis) prior to therapy. Many of these applications will greatly benefit from the use of integrated PET/CT due to its precise spatial and morphological assignment of functional information. In conclusion, PET is both capable and necessary for the transference of new biological knowledge to clinical practice. Thus, PET constitutes a strong basis for an advanced and individually tailored approach to tumor patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Technische Universitaet, Muenchen, Germany. astahl@lrz.tum.due
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stahl
authors.forename: Hinrich
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wieder
authors.forename: Morand
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Piert
authors.forename: Hans-Jürgen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Wester
authors.forename: Reingard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Senekowitsch-Schmidtke
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schwaiger
mesh_terms: D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008495:Medical Oncology; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography
chemical_list: D008565:Membrane Proteins