Latest Research on Molecular Imaging for Cancer Diagnosis and Prognosis

A special issue of Diagnostics (ISSN 2075-4418). This special issue belongs to the section "Medical Imaging and Theranostics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2024 | Viewed by 1541

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Molecular imaging (MI), defined as the ability to characterize and gauge molecular processes at a cellular and molecular level, has been gaining a central role in many oncological pathways of diagnosis and care. Due to its strong multidisciplinary nature, encompassing different branches of the “imaging sciences” (nuclear medicine, radiology, optical imaging, etc.), MI is strongly correlated with the concept of personalized medicine, a new approach based on the principle that each individual has unique biological characteristics. In this perspective, MI offers the opportunity to identify specific tumor-associated biomarkers suitable for patients’ stratification before molecularly targeted therapies and for the assessment of response. For example, the identification of a prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) by PET/CT represents an essential step in patients with advanced prostate cancer before the enrollment for PSMA-targeted radionuclide therapies with beta- or alpha-emitters. In this perspective, the emerging discipline of “radiomics”, aimed at extracting data from medical images undetectable to the naked eye but with potentially relevant clinical usefulness, represents a still little-explored field of research.

In this Special Issue, we solicit original contributions (reviews, original articles, etc.) focusing on the role of molecular imaging (PET, MRI, SPECT, optical imaging, radiomics) in oncology.

Dr. Luca Filippi
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diagnostics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nuclear medicine
  • molecular imaging
  • PET
  • MRI
  • SPECT
  • optical imaging
  • radiomics

Published Papers (1 paper)

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12 pages, 1248 KiB  
Systematic Review
[18F]-FDHT PET for the Imaging of Androgen Receptor in Prostate and Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review
by Luca Filippi, Luca Urso, Orazio Schillaci and Laura Evangelista
Diagnostics 2023, 13(15), 2613; https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics13152613 - 07 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1189
Abstract
The aim of this systematic review is to provide a comprehensive overview of the role of fluoro-5α-dihydrotestosterone ([18F]-FDHT) for the in vivo imaging of androgen receptors (AR) through positron emission tomography (PET) in metastatic breast (mBC) and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer [...] Read more.
The aim of this systematic review is to provide a comprehensive overview of the role of fluoro-5α-dihydrotestosterone ([18F]-FDHT) for the in vivo imaging of androgen receptors (AR) through positron emission tomography (PET) in metastatic breast (mBC) and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Relevant studies published from 2013 up to May 2023 were selected by searching Scopus, PubMed and Web of Science. The selected imaging studies were analyzed using a modified version of the critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP). Eleven studies encompassing 321 patients were selected. Seven of the eleven selected papers included 266 subjects (82.2%) affected by mCRPC, while four encompassed 55 (17.2%) patients affected by mBC. [18F]-FDHT PET showed a satisfying test/retest reproducibility, and when compared to a histochemical analysis, it provided encouraging results for in vivo AR quantification both in mCRPC and mBC. [18F]-FDHT PET had a prognostic relevance in mCRPC patients submitted to AR-targeted therapy, while a clear association between [18F]-FDHT uptake and the bicalutamide response was not observed in women affected by AR-positive mBC. Further studies are needed to better define the role of [18F]-FDHT PET, alone or in combination with other tracers (i.e., [18F]-FDG/[18F]-FES), for patients’ selection and monitoring during AR-targeted therapy, especially in the case of mBC. Full article
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