Anatomolecular imaging with 2-deoxy-2-[ ¹⁸ F] fluoro-D-glucose: Bench to outpatient center

Anatomic imaging of cancer using X-rays has proven very useful for more than a century but has clear limitations. Anatomic methods quite reliably show whether a large mass is present or absent, but not what the mass is composed of. Imaging additional phenotypic alterations of the altered genotype of cancers with positron emission tomography (PET)adds clinically valuable information for patient management. Although many molecular alterations are present in cancer, to date the one most exploited in practice has been the accelerated glucose metabolism present in most cancers. This process is well-imaged with the radiotracer 2-deoxy-2-[ ¹⁸ F]fluoro-D-glucose, the most commonly used molecular imaging agent with PET. The ability to combine the molecular and anatomic imaging of the entire body into hybrid anatomolecular images using dedicated PET-CT devices very likely represents the future of cancer imaging.