Nuclear Medicine in Oncology

Nuclear medicine is the branch of medicine in which a radioisotope-tagged pharmaceutical is used for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Over the years, it has become quite indispensable to the field of oncology. Historically, bone scanning using a gamma camera had been used for detecting bone metastasis. In the past few decades, however, positron emission tomography (PET) with F18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F18 FDG) has become the cornerstone for staging and response assessment of a variety of malignancies. In recent years, an improved understanding of cancer biology has led to the development of cancer-specific radiotracers targeting specific biomolecules. Nuclear medicine is not only limited to diagnostics. Radioactive iodine (RAI) has long been used in the treatment of thyroid cancer. In recent years, the development of novel biomolecules tagged with β- and α-emitting isotopes has opened a new horizon of targeted therapy in oncology. In this chapter, we present a brief overview of the history of nuclear medicine, its current role in oncology, and the potential avenues for its future growth.