[Concepts of medical imaging in the work up and follow-up of cancer : oncological imaging at a glance].
Journal:
Revue medicale de Liege
Published Date:
May 1, 2021
Abstract
Oncological imaging is a subspecialty of medical imaging and focuses on the workup and the follow-up of cancer. Oncological imaging takes into account all the specificities of cancer diseases, which is a constantly evolving field, especially in the era of precision medicine, and plays a key role in the care of cancer patients. It permits reliable diagnosis and gives precious information concerning disease extension at diagnosis, which is essential for the treatment planning. Oncological imaging allows also followup of patients under treatment, using response evaluation scores. Interventional imaging, which provides minimally invasive procedures, is useful in order to obtain a histological diagnosis, to treat some tumour or to improve quality of life of cancer patients. Finally, numerous perspectives, among them the advent of artificial intelligence (radiomics), will further strengthen the role of oncologic imaging in the near future.