Recent topics of the clinical utility of PET/MRI in oncology and neuroscience

Abstract

Since the inline positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system appeared in clinical, more than a decade has passed. In this article, we have reviewed recently-published articles about PET/MRI. There have been articles about staging in rectal and breast cancers by PET/MRI using fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) with higher diagnostic performance in oncology. Assessing possible metastatic bone lesions is considered a proper target by FDG PET/MRI. Other than FDG, PET/MRI with prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeted tracers or fibroblast activation protein inhibitor have been reported. Especially, PSMA PET/MRI has been reported to be a promising tool for determining appropriate sites in biopsy. Independent of tracers, the clinical application of artificial intelligence (AI) for images obtained by PET/MRI is one of the current topics in this field, suggesting clinical usefulness for differentiating breast lesions or grading prostate cancer. In addition, AI has been reported to be helpful for noise reduction for reconstructing images, which would be promising for reducing radiation exposure. Furthermore, PET/MRI has a clinical role in neuroscience, including localization of the epileptogenic zone. PET/MRI with new PET tracers could be useful for differentiation among neurological disorders. Clinical applications of integrated PET/MRI in various fields are expected to be reported in the future.

Keywords: AI; FDG; MRI; PET; PSMA.