The introduction of modern medical imaging techniques to oncology has revolutionised all aspects of the specialty, from diagnosis through to staging and treatment. Despite the ever-increasing sophistication of the detail of the images produced, it is nevertheless still relatively coarse radiological parameters that are used in clinical practice; for example, reduction in tumour size is still the best marker available to an oncologist assessing the efficacy of therapy. However, the great deal of knowledge we now have about the molecular pathways that lead to the creation, growth and spread of tumours may hold the key to more targeted imaging techniques. Global interest at present is particularly growing in the possible contributions that molecular imaging (the coupling of conventional imaging technologies with the use of probes to detect molecular correlates of disease progression and response to treatment) may make to both pre-clinical and clinical cancer research.
The provision of the very latest in radiological equipment together with first-class molecular biology laboratories at the new Cambridge Research Institute has attracted world-leaders in this cutting-edge area of research to it. Even though still at a relatively early stage, the results generated by these researchers already hints at the great promise this technique may hold.