Hypoxia imaging

Tumor hypoxia is a spatially and temporally heterogeneous phenomenon, resulting from the combined effect of many factors, including tumor type and volume, disease site (specific organ or tissue), regional microvessel density, blood flow, oxygen diffusion and consumption rates, etc. Given the importance of hypoxia in cancer progression and therapy, there has been a growing impetus to develop noninvasive imaging methods to detect and assess tumor hypoxia. In this paper, we overviewed representative PET or SPECT tracers for imaging hypoxia, and clinical utilities toward tailor-made cancer therapy.