Time-of-flight PET and PET/MRI: recurrent dreams or actual realities?

Excerpt

Following more than a decade of research, in the past 6 years we have witnessed the worldwide rapid diffusion of PET/CT scanners. The oncological applications of these scanners are demonstrating in clinical practice that multimodality imaging is essential for the development of targeted and individualised therapeutic strategies. The hybrid imaging approach is essential for attenuation correction, lesion localisation, optimisation of scanning time and tracer use. Furthermore, the hybrid approach is crucial for staging, treatment planning optimisation and monitoring of treatment response. In relation to these issues, there have been other emerging developments in imaging. In particular, a new generation of PET scanners has been constructed, i.e. the time-of-flight (TOF) scanners, and hybrid PET/MRI scanners have been tested. Although at present limited to small animal imaging applications, these techniques might become applicable in clinical practice within a few years and improve even further our ability to image and cure cancer patients. …