Breast cancer

Abstract

Diagnostic imaging modalities utilized in the care of cancer patients must fulfill several requirements: they must diagnose and characterize tumors with high accuracy, must reliably stage and restage the disease, and should allow for monitoring the effects of therapeutic interventions on the course of the disease. They should impact management by guiding treating physicians to appropriate individualized treatment strategies. There is ample evidence that positron emission tomography (PET) and PET-computed tomography (CT) imaging can meet these requirements. This chapter discusses the role and contributions of PET and PET-CT imaging using (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose in diagnosing, staging, restaging, and treatment monitoring of breast cancer. Novel molecular imaging probes and devices that have been developed and translated into early clinical research protocols are also introduced.