Breast Cancer Nuclear Medicine in Diagnosis and Therapeutic Options by Emilio Bombardieri, Gianni Bonadonna, Luca Gianni (2007)

Breast Cancer Nuclear Medicine in Diagnosis and Therapeutic Options by E. Bombardieri_ G. Bonadonna_ L. Gianni (2007)





Breast Cancer
Nuclear Medicine in Diagnosis and Therapeutic Options
by
Bombardieri · Bonadonna · Gianni

With Contributions by
R. Agresti · A. Alessi · H. Bender · S. Bergomi · T. Beyer · H.-J. Biersack · E. Bombardieri
A. K. Buck · E. Brugola · J. R. Buscombe · I. Butti · V. Cappelletti · A. Carbone
M. L. Carcangiu · A. Coli · P. F. Conte · F. Crippa · M. G. Daidone · A. Fabbri · F. Fazio
L. Florimonte · R. Fonti · O. Gentilini · A. Gerali · L. Gianni · L. Gianolli · M. Gion
V. Guarneri · N. Harbeck · K. Hausegger · O. S. Hoekstra · I. Igerc · M. Intra · F. Iommelli
N. C. Krak · J. M. H. de Klerk · M. G. E. H. Lam · A. A. Lammertsma · C. Landoni · P. Lind
G. Lucignani · G. Madeddu · L. Maffi oli · C. Di Maggio · C. L. Maini · S. Manoukian
P. Mariani · N. Mazzuca · C. Messa · A. J. Nordin · H. Palmedo · G. Paganelli · L. Pagani
F. Pallotti · A. Paradiso · R. Pasqualoni · F. Piacentini · M. Picchio · P. Reinprecht · S. N. Reske
P. P. van Rijk · I. Roca · M. Salvatore · O. Schillaci · M. Schmitt · R. Sciuto · E. Seregni
G. Serfi ni · A. Spanu · L. Strigari · F. Sweep · L. Tagliabue · G. Trecate · G. Trifi rò
S. Del Vecchio · D. Vernaghi · U. Veronesi · G. Viale · B. Zangheri · A. Zannetti

Breast cancer is the most common malignant disease among Western women and rep-
resents a major public health problem, with more than 370,000 new cases and 130,000
deaths per year in women aged 35–64 years in Europe alone. It accounts for one third
of the cancer-related deaths in women aged 35–55 years.
The efforts of modern oncology to deal with this clinical problem are focused on
reaching a diagnosis at the earliest stage, when the disease is still limited, the tumour
is resectable and it is still possible to treat with curative intent. Another essential goal
of modern research is to characterise the tumour cells in order to categorise patients
into different risk groups, identify responders versus nonresponders to therapy, and
design adequate targeted therapies that are effective also in the adjuvant setting to
eradicate breast cancer cells that might have already spread to distant sites at the time
of diagnosis.
The great impact of nuclear medicine in oncology is due to its important progress in
this fi eld in recent years, and the effect of such progress has been particularly noticeable
in breast cancer. Research into molecular imaging has led to the development of several
radiopharmaceuticals that can explore the cellular metabolism and visualise, at the
molecular and subcellular level, pathological processes specifi c to cancer. Advances in
diagnostic equipment have made high-technology instruments available such as PET,
which is capable of producing high-quality tomographic images. Such imaging has
become of major value to physicians because it often reveals alterations and lesions
not demonstrated by conventional morphological techniques such as X-rays, US, CT
or MRI. Research into image fusion techniques has led to the design of software pro-
grammes capable of merging the molecular, functional and metabolic information of
nuclear medicine with the morphological information provided by radiology into a
single image. Hybrid instruments (PET/CT, SPECT/CT) are now available which allow
the fusion of images of a patient in just one diagnostic session.
All these impressive achievements are going to produce important results not only
for the diagnosis but also the treatment of cancer. Nuclear medicine explores the func-
tion and biology of cells and tissues, and can be considered an experimental area of
drug development for individual tailored therapies. In fact, radiopharmaceuticals
developed specifi cally to target and visualise malignant tumours can also be used, at
high doses, for therapeutic purposes. Nuclear medicine therapeutics thus takes advan-
tage of selective radiopharmaceuticals that have demonstrated anticancer effi cacy in
many types of tumours.

This book on the diagnostic and therapeutic applications of nuclear medicine in
breast cancer aims to describe the state of the art and the current position of nuclear
medicine in the light of these recent developments and in comparison with conven-
tional radiological and nonradiological modalities. Some basic concepts regarding
breast cancer are treated and discussed with the aim of providing a general overview
on a disease that is the subject of continuous stimulating proposals for research and
clinical investigation. The text is therefore intended as an update also for non-nuclear-
medicine specialists working in senology and oncology. The new defi nition of nuclear
medicine is ‘molecular imaging’ and ‘targeted therapy’ and its clinical impact is
becoming increasingly important. We have no doubt that the diagnosis and treatment
of breast cancer will benefi t from the new horizons opened up by nuclear medicine.
Gianni Bonadonna
Emilio Bombardieri
Luca Gianni


Bibliographic information
for Breast Cancer
Title Breast Cancer: Nuclear Medicine in Diagnosis and Therapeutic Options
Editors Emilio Bombardieri, Gianni Bonadonna, Luca Gianni
Edition illustrated
Publisher Springer Science & Business Media, 2007
ISBN 3540367810, 9783540367819
Length 307 pages