title: PET/CT in Oncology: Current Status and Perspectives.
abstract: The discovery of the Warburg effect in the early twentieth century followed by the development of the fluorinated glucose analogue18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) and the invention of positron emission tomographs laid the foundation of clinical PET/CT. This review discusses the challenges and obstacles in clinical adoption of this technique. We then discuss advances in instrumentation, including the critically important introduction of PET/CT and current PET/CT protocols. Moreover, we provide evidence for the clinical utility of PET/CT for patient management and its potential impact on patient outcome, and address its cost and cost-effectiveness. Although this review largely focuses on18F-FDG imaging, we also discuss a variety of additional molecular imaging approaches that can be used for cancer phenotyping with PET. Throughout this review we emphasize the critical contributions of CT to the strength of PET/CT.
authors.affiliation: Ahmanson Translational Imaging Division, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Room AR-23-222 CHS, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1782 USA.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Czernin
authors.affiliation: Ahmanson Translational Imaging Division, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Room AR-23-222 CHS, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1782 USA.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Allen-Auerbach
authors.affiliation: Ahmanson Translational Imaging Division, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Room AR-23-222 CHS, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1782 USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nathanson
authors.affiliation: Ahmanson Translational Imaging Division, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Room AR-23-222 CHS, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1782 USA ; Department of Nuclear Medicine, Universitätsklinikum Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Herrmann
keywords: Initial treatment strategies; Molecular imaging; Oncology; PET/CT; Subsequent treatment strategies