PET Imaging

Image of a STING protein, courtesy of UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center

Getty Images

A PET-CT head and neck cancer scan showing various image reconstructions. The top left image is the separate CT scan showing the anatomy. The top right scan shows the fused PET and CT scans with false color added to help interpret the image. The bottom left scan is an initial FDG PET image showing tracer hot spots in the neck and a lymph node in the right jaw due to cancer. The right bottom image is a delayed enhancement scan showing tracer uptake over time, with normal hot spots in the bladder, kidneys, testicles and brain, which normally have higher metabolic activity. The low-grade gray shading of the anatomy is due to the normal cellular metabolism uptake of the FDG throughout the body. 

Image courtesy of Vital Images

Positrigo founders Max Ahnen, Ph.D. (left) and Jannis Fischer, Ph.D.

Human imaging examples of performance of uEXPLORER total-body PET scanner. (A) Axial slice from 18F-fluciclovine PET image (right), with corresponding fused image (middle) and CT image (left), of 68-y-old patient with castration-resistant metastatic prostate cancer, demonstrating clear visualization of 18F-flucicovine accumulation within 2.5-mm-diameter pulmonary nodule. (B) Maximum-intensity projection of representative clinical oncology 18F-FDG PET scan reconstructed with 20-, 5-, and 2.5-min durations, of 59-y-old patient with lung cancer. Images show primary tumor in left lower lobe of lung (dashed circle), with multiple variable-sized (0.8-6 cm) hilar, mediastinal, and lower esophageal nodal metastases (arrows) and ~1-cm 18FFDG-avid left adrenal nodule (arrowhead), which is visualized for all scan durations. Image created by Y. Abdelhafez and B.A. Spencer, EXPLORER Molecular Imaging Center, UC Davis, Sacramento, CA