Metastasis Imaging: Current Concepts and Future Challenges

Description

The appearance of metastasis marks a progression to lethal cancer and is the focus of considerable investment in the development of novel therapeutic agents. Assessing the efficacy of such agents in the clinic is traditionally done by means of standard morphological imaging which monitors any changes in tumor size. But increasingly such assessment demands the use of functional imaging methodologies that report on tumor characteristics other than size, such as vascularity, metabolism, glucose uptake etc. This edition of Cancer Biomarkers highlights a number of functional imaging methodologies, both established and in development in preclinical and clinical settings, and documents the utility of some of these techniques in specific clinical applications.

The first half of the book consists of four reviews and articles covering available imaging technologies, dynamic nuclear polarization and new applications in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The second half of the book is devoted to the role of positron emission tomography (PET), and consists of a comprehensive review of all available PET techniques, followed by two articles focusing on the use of 18FDG PET in colorectal cancer and Hodgkin's lymphoma patients respectively.

The book reviews the cellular processes of metastasis, relates them to imaging findings both in vitro and in vivo in clinical studies and highlights the role of some established and some newer techniques in metastasis imaging.