Position emission tomography imaging in pancreatic cancer: recent progress and future directions

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide. Limited therapeutic options are available. Therefore, how to detect early-stage tumors and how to monitor treatment efficacy and outcomes to allow timely salvage therapies are of crucial importance. Position emission tomography (PET) imaging provides more tumor-associated functional, biochemical and molecular information, without some of the intrinsic limitations of traditional imaging modalities. PET is highlighted as a potential tool to help better understand the mechanism of PC and personalize individual therapeutic regimens. In this review, we outline the available PET imaging modalities and their prospective applications in PC.