Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and breast cancer in clinical practice

The landscape of oncologic practice has changed deeply during the past few years and there is now a need, through a multidisciplinary approach, for imaging to provide accurate evaluation of morphology and function and to guide treatment (Image Guided Therapy). Increasing emphasis has been put on Position Emission Tomography (PET) role in various cancers among clinicians [Juweid ME, Cheson BD. Positron-emission tomography and assessment of cancer therapy. N Engl J Med 2006;354:496-507; Koh DM, Cook GJR, Husband JE. New horizons in oncologic imaging. N Engl J Med 2003;348:25; Tafra L, positron emission tomography (PET) and mammography (PEM) for breast cancer: importance to surgeons. Ann Surg Oncol 2006;14(1):3-13] and patients despite a general context of healthcare expenditure limitation. Positron Emission Tomography has currently a limited role in breast cancer, but also general radiologists and specialists should be aware of these indications, especially when staging aggressive cancers and looking for recurrence. Currently, the hybrid systems associating PET and Computed Tomography (CT) and in the same device [Rohren EM, Turkington TG, Coleman RE. Clinical applications of PET in oncology. Radiology 2004;231:305-32; Blodgett TM, Meltzer CM, Townsend DW. PET/CT: form and function. Radiology 2007;242:360-85; von Schulthess GK, Steinert HC, Hany TF. Integrated PET/CT: current applications and futures directions. Radiology 2006;238(2):405-22], or PET-CT, are more commonly used and the two techniques are adding their potentialities. Other techniques, MRI in particular, may also compete with PET in some instance and as far as ionizing radiations dose limitation is considered, some breast cancers becoming some form of a chronic disease. Breast cancer is a very complex, non-uniform, disease and molecular imaging at large may contribute to a better knowledge and to new drugs development. Ongoing research, Positron Emission Mammography (PEM) and new tracers, are likely to bring improvements in patient care [Kelloff GJ, Hoffman JM, Johnson B, et al. Progress and promise of FDG-PET Imaging for cancer patient management and oncologic drug development. Clin Cancer Res 2005;1(April (8)): 2005].