Carcinogenesis is a complex multistep process, characterized by changes at different levels, both genetic and epigenetic, which alter cell metabolism. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a very sensitive image modality that allows to evaluate oncometabolism. PET functionalities are immense, since by labelling a molecule that specifically intervenes in a biochemical regulatory pathway of interest with a positron-emitting radionuclide, we can easily image that pathway. Thus, PET makes possible imaging several metabolic processes and assessing risk prediction, screening, diagnosis, response to therapy, metastization and recurrence. In this paper, we provide an overview of different radiopharmaceuticals developed for PET use in oncology, with a focus on brain tumours, breast cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, neuroendocrine tumours, bladder cancer and prostate cancer because for these cancer types PET has been shown to be valuable. Most of the described tracers are just used in the research environment, with the aim to assess if these tracers could be able to offer an improvement concerning staging/restaging, characterization and stratification of different types of cancer, as well as therapeutic response assessment. In pursuit of personalized therapy, we briefly discuss the more established metabolic tracers and describe recent work on the development of new radiopharmaceuticals, aware that there will continue to exist diagnostic challenges to face modern cancer medicine.

中文翻译：

---

PET进行肿瘤功能成像。

癌变是一个复杂的多步骤过程，其特征是遗传和表观遗传的不同水平改变，从而改变细胞代谢。正电子发射断层扫描（PET）是一种非常敏感的图像模式，可用于评估代谢代谢。PET功能是巨大的，因为通过用发射正电子的放射性核素标记特定干预感兴趣的生化调节途径的分子，我们可以轻松地对该途径进行成像。因此，PET使对几个代谢过程进行成像并评估风险预测，筛查，诊断，对治疗的反应，转移和复发成为可能。在本文中，我们概述了开发用于PET的各种放射性药物，并将其重点放在脑肿瘤，乳腺癌，肝细胞癌，神经内分泌肿瘤，膀胱癌和前列腺癌，因为对于这些癌症类型，PET已被证明是有价值的。所描述的大多数示踪剂仅在研究环境中使用，目的是评估这些示踪剂是否能够提供有关不同类型癌症的分期/分期，特征和分层以及治疗反应评估的改进。为了追求个性化治疗，我们简要讨论了更成熟的代谢示踪剂，并描述了新放射性药物开发的最新工作，并意识到面对现代癌症医学将继续存在诊断挑战。目的是评估这些示踪剂是否能够提供有关不同类型癌症的分期/重新分期，特征和分层以及治疗反应评估的改进。为了追求个性化治疗，我们简要讨论了更成熟的代谢示踪剂，并描述了新放射性药物开发的最新工作，并意识到面对现代癌症医学将继续存在诊断挑战。目的是评估这些示踪剂是否能够提供有关不同类型癌症的分期/重新分期，特征和分层以及治疗反应评估的改进。为了追求个性化治疗，我们简要讨论了更成熟的代谢示踪剂，并描述了新放射性药物开发的最新工作，并意识到面对现代癌症医学将继续存在诊断挑战。