www.appliedradiology.com September 2009
Jacqueline C. Brunetti, MD
Twenty-first century cancer thera¬pies are increasingly employing agents targeted to specific cellular processes. These agents are best tailored to patient needs by adapting our diagnostic and staging modalities to provide metabolic indications of disease activity. Concurrent advances in both our understanding of the molecular aberrations in cancer cells and our abiity to image the primary or secondary effects of these changes bring us closer to the development of patient-centered treatment. One such cellular factor is the over-expression of GLUT-1 transporters that facilitates increased aerobic glycolysis, and consequently, uptake of 18F fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) by cancer cells. Functional positron emission tomography (PET) with FDG and com¬bined anatomic-functional imaging with PET and computed tomography (PET-CT) have rapidly been adopted as methods of diagnosis, staging and therapy monitoring in a variety of cancers. This is due to the demonstrated im- proved accuracy over conventional anatomic imaging methods.