The applications of PET in clinical oncology

With the advent of a new generation of PET scanners that have introduced whole-body PET to the clinical setting, there is now more interest in developing protocols for the evaluation of both intracranial and somatic cancers. The value of PET in clinical oncology has been demonstrated with studies in a variety of cancers including colorectal carcinomas, lung tumors, head and neck tumors, primary and metastatic brain tumors, breast carcinoma, lymphoma, melanoma, bone cancers, and other soft-tissue cancers. A summary of current clinical applications of PET in oncology is presented with special attention to colorectal, lung, and intracranial neoplasms since the majority of clinical trials have focused on these cancers. A variety of radiopharmaceuticals are described that are currently included in clinical tumor-imaging protocols, including metabolic substrates such as fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose and carbon-11-methionine, and analogs of chemotherapeutic agents such as fluorine-18-fluorouracil and fluoroestradiol. An attempt is also made to include examples of clinical trials that demonstrate response to therapeutic intervention. The increasing number of oncologic PET studies reflects the growing interest in functional imaging in oncology.