Women's Health Update: Growing Role of PET for Patients with Breast Cancer

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) has been investigated in the management of patients with breast cancer since 1993.1,2 Despite earlier investigational use of 18F-FDG PET in patients with breast cancer, widespread clinical usage is only far more recent. National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines discouraged the use of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) in patients with breast cancer until nearly 2020;3 which certainly dissuaded physicians and insurers from utilizing it widely. However, the 2023 NCCN guidelines4 and European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) guidelines5 for breast cancer now discuss appropriate utilization of 18F-FDG, 16α-18F-fluoro-17β-Fluoroestradiol (18F-FES), and Sodium 18F-Fluoride (18F-NaF), which likely contributes to the recent growth of PET utilization for patients with breast cancer. This manuscript will review the evidence supporting 18F-FDG, 18F-FES, and 18F-NaF PET for patients with breast cancer. It will then briefly discuss some of the novel PET radiotracers currently utilized in clinical trials, which may further expand the roles of PET in the management of patients with breast cancer.

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