Positron Emission Tomography in Renal Cell Carcinoma

Renal cell carcinoma is the most common solid kidney tumor. Conventional methods such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are usually chosen for diagnosis, staging, and evaluating recurrence and treatment response. However, the sensitivity of these methods is limited in each indication. For this reason, metabolic evaluation with positron emission tomography has an important value in most solid tumors. However, the role of 18-fluorine-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG), which is the most commonly used positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceutical, is limited in the evaluation of primary kidney lesions due to urinary excretion. Therefore, new radiopharmaceuticals with no or limited urinary excretion have been developed. In this paper, the application of PET imaging with the widely used 18F-FDG and the newly developed fluorothymidine and gallium-68/18F prostate-specific membrane antigen in renal cell carcinoma are reviewed