The age of reason for FDG PET image-derived indices

Excerpt

The clinical use of PET imaging using ¹⁸F-FDG is currently predominantly focused on diagnosis in the field of oncology. In this context, image analysis is largely based on visual interpretation and the use of simple image-derived indices, such as the maximum standardized uptake value (SUV_max), which corresponds to the voxel with the maximum activity concentration in the tumour scaled by the administered activity, patient weight and blood glucose concentration. On the other hand, during the last few years there has been increasing interest in the use of ¹⁸F-FDG PET imaging for the prediction and monitoring of therapy response. In this context the SUV_max has been also predominantly used, where differences between a pretreatment and posttreatment scan have been shown to closely correlate with clinical response to treatment in a number of different cancer models [1, 2]. …