Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer PET Imaging Beyond F18 Fluorodeoxyglucose

F18 Flurodeoxyglucose (FDG) is a nonspecific PET tracer representing tumor energy metabolism, with common false-positive and false-negative findings in clinical practice. Non-small cell lung cancer is highly heterogeneous histologically, biologically, and molecularly. Novel PET tracers designed to characterize a specific aspect of tumor biology or a pathway-specific molecular target have the potential to provide noninvasive key information in tumor heterogeneity for patient stratification and in the assessment of treatment response. Non-FDG PET tracers, including ⁶⁸Ga-somatostatin analogs, and some PET tracers targeting tumor proliferation, hypoxia, angiogenesis, and pathway-specific targets are briefly reviewed in this article.