PET Imaging

From left to right are patients with EGFR mutation, KRAS mutation, and EGFR– and KRAS– tumors, respectively. Stage I and III tumors are shown in the top and bottom rows, respectively. Arrows indicate the locations of the lung tumors. Credit: Stephen S.F. Yip, Ph.D., and Hugo Aerts, Ph.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston; John Kim, M.D., University of Michigan Health System, Ann Arbor, Mich.

CTVPOST (red) = CTVPRE (yellow) union CTVPET (pink). Also shown (upper right corner) are the PRE (square) vs POST (triangle) dose volume histograms for PTV1, PTV2, rectum, bladder, and penile bulb, showing minimal impact on target coverage or organs at risk dose with the modified targets. Image courtesy of Ashesh B. Jani, M.D., and David Schuster, M.D., Emory University.

Ga-68-BBN PET/CT of a 64-year-old man newly diagnosed with prostate cancer by biopsy. Multiple bone metastasis lesions (arrows) were detected. Image courtesy of Jingjing Zhang, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.

Uptake of 89Zr-11B6 in the prostate of a transgenic mouse with prostate cancer. Image courtesy of Daniel Thorek

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a chemical compound that detects the Alzheimer’s protein amyloid beta better than current FDA-approved agents. The compound potentially may be used in brain scans to identify people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease. In the image, the compound has passed from the bloodstream of a living mouse into its brain, where it is detected by a positron emission tomography (PET) scan. Arrows indicate clumps of amyloid beta. Credit Ping Yan and Jin-Moo Lee.