PET/CTsince its introduction in 2001has emerged as the primary diagnostic tool in the staging of lung cancer when compared to PET and CT alone. The shift from CT to PET/CT will continue with technological advances in respiratory gating and molecular imaging.

First there was PET imaging, and then emerged the need for anatomic localization. Thus was born the hybrid PET/CT scanner, which currently dominates the market. The acceptance of SPECT/CT is gaining momentum, as more and more clinical uses for the combination imaging are proving advantageous.

Multimodality molecular imaging and new developments in imaging agents are beginning to make their mark on diagnosis, staging, detecting recurrence and measuring response to therapy in prostate cancerPET/CT with choline is the emerging standard.

The development of molecular imaging has not only had a profound impact on medical practice and imaging, but on the relationship between the two established specialties of radiology and nuclear medicine.

The global healthcare environment is rapidly changing. This is prompted by the overall economic situation and also by the change in healthcare policies and politics that undoubtedly will have a substantial impact on the way medicine is practiced worldwide. 

It was a difficult, but not uncommon, neuroradiology case: A patient suffered seizures, but had, a year before, been cleared of the possibility of epilepsy by a radiologist looking at an MRI study of the patient’s brain. The persistence of the symptoms suggested that the initial diagnosis had been incorrect, so Meng Law, MD, professor of radiology

The current economic crisis affects industry, but also academia, with decreasing federal funds available for medical research. Many of the brightest researchers create and invent novel approaches in academia. On the other hand, scientific discoveries by pharmaceutical, radiopharmaceutical and instrumentation companies frequently need to be tested and validated in collaboration with academia.

Over the past few years, the global nuclear medicine community has been plagued with shortages of medical radioisotopes, which is particularly detrimental for the oft-used molybdenum-99 (Mo-99)the parent isotope of technetium-99m (Tc-99m), the most widely utilized radioisotope in the world for molecular and nuclear diagnostic imaging studies.