Foreword

Who could have predicted that the discoveries by Roentgen of X-rays, by Becquerel of radioactivity, by Warburg of the aerobic glycolysis of tumors, and the solution of the Radon problem by Cormack would lead to one of the most powerful medical technologies in the care of cancer patients? But it did and this (not so slim) volume organized by Victor Gerbaudo shows the result.

The development of PET/CT for cancer was mostly a case of technology first – application second. This is in contrast to those technologies where there is a clear need and a technology developed to meet it. Originally concerned in applications to brain imaging, all parts (PET, CT, DG) were adapted to oncology once it was remembered that tumors as well as the brain use glucose as a fuel. After a slow but rapidly progressing start over the past fifteen years, inhibited, in part, by gate-keeping agencies’ inability to realize its potential, PET/CT has become central to diagnosis, staging, assessing response to therapy and in the planning of radiation therapy for a host of cancers. This compendium demonstrates how far it has come and points to some uses, such as in image-guided therapy, for the future.