Molecular imaging enthusiasts would undoubtedly like to encounter more residents like Dr. Jinha M. Park. In his last year of residency at the University of California, Los Angeles, Park completed his fellowship at Stanford, where he spent a year studying optical imaging modalities.

PET's 30-year evolution from an intriguing research tool to a diagnostic platform for clinical molecular imaging is the result of careful planning, according to Michael Phelps, Ph.D., who along with collaborator Ed Hoffman, invented and introduced the first PET scanners.

When the relevant clinical question revolves around the presence and extent of cancer, fluorine-18 FDG-PET/CT often generates the most precise answers. The ability of F-18 FDG to make cancer glow like a light bulb, helping to differentiate between living and dead brain tissue affected by Alzheimer's disease, has made it the radiopharmaceutical agent of choice in more than 80% of clinical PET procedures.

PET/CT imaging has evolved in the past five years from an undefined new technology to an invaluable instrument that provides critical information for clinical decision making.

Technical advances continue to make PET/CT and SPECT/CT suitable as platforms for molecular imaging. Pharmaceutical companies and specialty laboratories are developing and refining new radiopharmaceuticals. Imaging equipment manufacturers are incorporating more powerful and sensitive technology into their equipment and sophisticated reconstruction software is producing clearer images.

Molecular imaging will figure prominently in collaborations among public and private interests to modernize the drug development process and make new therapies available more quickly and at lower cost.

The 2006 meeting of the Academy of Molecular Imaging occupied the middle ground between meetings of its two sister societies, the eminently scientific Society for Molecular Imaging and the clinically oriented Society of Nuclear Medicine.

CONTEXT: Neuroradiology fellow Dr. Roula Hourani at Johns Hopkins University researched the ability of proton MR spectroscopy (MRS) to differentiate between benign brain neoplasia and tumors in children. Potentially, such a non-invasive diagnostic approach would most benefit children with non-neoplastic lesions and less accessible tumors that could be treated by radio- or chemotherapy.

CONTEXT: Dr. Dushyant Sahani, director of CT at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, evaluated the effects of the anti-angiogenic drug bevacizumab (Avastin, Genentech) on patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Perfusion CT was used compare changes in tumor perfusion with tumor size and biomarkers such as alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and circulating endothelial cells (CEC).

CONTEXT: Intra-arterial therapy with beta-irradiating yttrium (90Y) microspheres (Therasphere) has demonstrated significant therapeutic benefit in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma.

CONTEXT: In acute myocardial infarction (AMI), the culprit thrombus sometimes dissolves before the patient arrives in the emergency room, leaving the cardiologist with few clues as to the source of the chest pain.