title: Tumor-specific positron emission tomography imaging in patients: [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose and beyond.
abstract: Biochemical and molecular imaging of cancer using positron emission tomography (PET) plays an increasing role in the care of cancer patients. Most clinical work to date uses the glucose analogue [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) to detect accelerated and aberrant glycolysis present in most tumors. Although clinical FDG PET has been used largely to detect and localize cancer, more detailed studies have yielded biological insights and showed the utility of FDG as a prognostic marker and as a tool for therapeutic response evaluation. As cancer therapy becomes more targeted and individualized, it is likely that PET radiopharmaceuticals other than FDG, aimed at more specific aspects of cancer biology, will also play a role in guiding cancer therapy. Clinical trials designed to test and validate new PET agents will need to incorporate rigorous quantitative image analysis and adapt to the evolving use of imaging as a biomarker and will need to incorporate cancer outcomes, such as survival into study design.
authors.affiliation: University of Washington and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, Seattle, Washington , USA. dam@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Mankoff
authors.forename: Janet F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Eary
authors.forename: Jeanne M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Link
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muzi
authors.forename: Joseph G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Rajendran
authors.forename: Alexander M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Spence
authors.forename: Kenneth A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Krohn
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18