الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract The increasing availability of new hybrid SPECT/CT devices with advanced technology offers the opportunity to shorten acquisition time and to provide accurate attenuation correction and fusion imaging. In this work we discussed the capabilities of SPECT/CT for improving sensitivity and specificity in the imaging of many oncological tumors like brain tumors, differentiated thyroid cancers, neuroendocrine tumors, malignant lymphoma, metastatic bone disease, sentinel lymph nodes and other tumors. On the other hand, it has been emphasized that in many practical uses single photon emitting agents are not replaceable by PET radiopharmaceuticals because of a variety of reasons, ranging from logistical considerations (e.g. physical half-life, formal approval by regulatory authorities and commercial availability) to patient-related considerations (e.g. radiation burden, selectivity of biological targeting, possibility to perform dynamic and dualradionuclide imaging); important socio-economic considerations (with special reference to the vast majority of the world population living in developing countries) must also be taken into account. It appears likely that combined SPECT/CT will be highly useful for performing valid and clinically applicable dosimetry, for improving treatment planning, and for ensuring safe and effective radionuclide therapy. Summarising, hybrid devices will play an increasing role in imaging tumours with SPECT, i.e. for precise functional characterisation and staging of disease during initial work-up, for detection of tumour tissue after Conclusion and summary 137 treament and its exact localisation inside a residual mass, for early diagnosis of relapse, especially in the presence of inconclusive anatomical studies, and for improvement of dosimetric estimation for targeted radionuclide therapy |