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The Continuing Evolution of Molecular Functional Imaging in Clinical Oncology: The Road to Precision Medicine and Radiogenomics (Part II)

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Abstract

The present era of precision medicine sees “cancer” as a consequence of molecular derangements occurring at the commencement of the disease process, with morphological changes happening much later in the process of tumourigenesis. Conventional imaging techniques, such as computed tomography (CT), ultrasound (US) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) play an integral role in the detection of disease at the macroscopic level. However, molecular functional imaging (MFI) techniques entail the visualisation and quantification of biochemical and physiological processes occurring during tumourigenesis. MFI has the potential to play a key role in heralding the transition from the concept of “one-size-fits-all” treatment to “precision medicine”. Integration of MFI with other fields of tumour biology such as genomics has spawned a novel concept called “radiogenomics”, which could serve as an indispensable tool in translational cancer research. With recent advances in medical image processing, such as texture analysis, deep learning and artificial intelligence, the future seems promising; however, their clinical utility remains unproven at present. Despite the emergence of novel imaging biomarkers, the majority of these require validation before clinical translation is possible. In this two part review, we discuss the systematic collaboration across structural, anatomical and molecular imaging techniques that constitute MFI. Part I reviews positron emission tomography, radiogenomics, AI, and optical imaging, while part II reviews MRI, CT and ultrasound, their current status, and recent advances in the field of precision oncology.

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Acknowledgements

We are extremely grateful to Dr. Nilesh Sable and Dr. Anil Keith D’Cruz for their support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiodiagnosis and Imaging, Tata Memorial Hospital, Tata Memorial Centre, Room No 125, Dr E Borges Road, Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400012, India

    Tanvi Vaidya, Shivani Mahajan, M. H. Thakur & Abhishek Mahajan

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Tata Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400 012, India

    Archi Agrawal

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  1. Tanvi Vaidya
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Correspondence to Abhishek Mahajan.

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All the authors, Tanvi Vaidya, Archi Agrawal, Shivani Mahajan, M.H. Thakur, and Abhishek Mahajan, declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Presented cases and procedures involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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The original version of this article was revised: The name of the second author, which previously read: “Archi Aggarwal” should read as “Archi Agrawal”.

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Vaidya, T., Agrawal, A., Mahajan, S. et al. The Continuing Evolution of Molecular Functional Imaging in Clinical Oncology: The Road to Precision Medicine and Radiogenomics (Part II). Mol Diagn Ther 23, 27–51 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40291-018-0367-3

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