Positron-Emission Tomography and Assessment of Cancer Therapy

Positron-emission tomography (PET) is a noninvasive imaging technique that exploits the unique decay physics of positron-emitting isotopes. The isotopes of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and fluorine have been used in the development of diagnostically useful biologic compounds that are available for PET imaging in order to provide a functional or metabolic assessment of normal tissues or disease conditions.The past few years have seen a tremendous expansion of clinical applications of PET, particularly in oncology, mostly with the use of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) as the PET tracer. PET with 18F-FDG is now being used in the evaluation of several neoplasms, both . . .