The application of hypoxia imaging with PET in predicting tumor hypoxia and guiding clinical therapy

Assessing tumor hypoxia with metabolic imaging is an attractive alternative. Hypoxia tracers bind selectively to hypoxic cells, using PET with specific radiopharmaceuticals could visualize hypoxia noninvasively. Hypoxia PET imaging is a valuable tool in assessing oxygenation levels in tumors for the purpose of tumor diagnosis and also as a prognostic indicator. Meanwhile, hypoxia imaging can quantify hypoxic tumor subvolumes for dose painting and personalized treatment planning and delivery. This review summarizes the published literature on clinical studies and the experimental treatment of tumor hypoxia. (authors)