Molecular Imaging for Cancer Diagnosis and Surveillance

Abstract

Nowadays, molecular imaging technologies have a pivotal role in the field of clinical oncology. The utilization of imaging methods in the early detection of cancer, assessment of treatment response, and development of new therapies is steadily increasing and has already had a significant impact on the clinical management of cancer. Molecular imaging is indispensable for both the detection and treatment of cancer. It focuses on various biomarkers used in targeted therapy, and nuclear medicine-based molecular imaging is a real-time and non-invasive technique that has the potential to identify tumors at an earlier and more manageable stage, before anatomical imaging methods reveal the presence of the disease. Molecular imaging offers extensive possibilities for visualizing cellular and molecular activities throughout tumor growth, serving as a biomedical imaging technology with remarkable sensitivity in detecting and resolving images. It provides non-invasive methods for observing, characterizing, and quantifying biological processes at the cellular and subcellular levels. The development of molecular imaging biomarkers is aimed at improving the evaluation of the effects of targeted therapy. Examples of molecular imaging techniques include positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), magnetic resonance imaging (mMRI), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), optical imaging, photoacoustic imaging, and multimodal imaging. Some modalities require the administration of molecular probes, while mMRI and photoacoustic imaging can track the effectiveness of drugs using either endogenous molecules or exogenous molecular probes.