Assessment of cancer-associated biomarkers by positron emission tomography: Advances and challenges

Issue title: Functional Imaging of Early Markers of Disease

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Collier, T. Lee | Lecomte, Roger | McCarthy, Timothy J. | Meikle, Steve | Ruth, Thomas J. | Scopinaro, Francesco | Signore, Alberto | VanBrocklin, Henry | Van de Wiele, Christophe | Waterhouse, Rikki N.

Affiliations: PETNET Pharmaceuticals, North Wales, PA, USA | Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA | Department of Nuclear Medicine and Radiobiology, Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada | UBC/TRIUMF PET Program, University of British Columbia, Canada | Pharmacia, Peapack, NJ, USA | Department of PET and Nuclear Medicine, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia | Department of Nuclear Medicine, University "La Sapienza", Roma, Italy | Department of Nuclear Medicine and Functional Imaging, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley CA, USA | Division of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital Ghent, Ghent, Belgium

Note: [] Corresponding author: Rikki N. Waterhouse, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) and Columbia University, 1051 Riverside Drive, Box 126, New York, NY 10032, USA. Tel.: +1 212 543 6630; Fax: +1 212 543 5854; E-mail: rnw7@columbia.edu

Abstract: Positron emission tomography (PET) provides a powerful means to non-invasively image and quantify protein expression and biochemical changes in living subjects at nano- and picomolar levels. As the field of molecular imaging develops, and as advances in the biochemistry, pharmacology, therapeutics, and molecular biology of disease are made, there is a corresponding increase in the number of clinically relevant, novel disease-associated biomarkers that are brought to the attention of those developing imaging probes for PET. In addition, due to the high specificity of the PET radiotracers being developed, there is a demand for PET cameras with higher sensitivity and resolution. This manuscript reviews advances over the past five years in clinical and pre-clinical PET instrumentation and in new PET probes and imaging methods associated with the latest trends in the molecular imaging of cancer. Included in the PET tracer review is a description of new radioligands for steroid receptors, growth factor receptors, receptor tyrosine kinases, sigma receptors, tumor-associated enzymes, gene reporter probes, markers for tumor hypoxia and metabolism, and sites associated with angiogenesis and cellular proliferation. The use of PET imaging in drug development, including the monitoring of cancer chemotherapy, also is discussed.

Journal: Disease Markers, vol. 18, no. 5-6, pp. 211-247, 2002