Is there a future for clinical fluorine-18 radiopharmaceuticals (excluding FDG)?
Merely, asking this question, which as posed by the Editor-in-Chief, implies that it cannon easily be answered with a simple yes or no. in fact, it is closely related to the question, Is there a future for clinical PET? When looking at the world-wide PET radiopharmaceutical production on the basis of a recent IAEA directory [1], it is disappointing to see that besides FDG, and to a certain extent FDOPA, fluorine-18 radiopharmaceuticals are not widely used. Other 18F products, such as fluoride, spiperone derivatives, FMISO, fluoroaltanserin, fluorofatty acids and fluoroamino acids, are used by only a few centres. The emphasis of this editorial is on clinical radiopharmaceuticals, and in this respect the impact of 18F thus far is extremely small, if on excludes FDG. The reasons are discussed in this editorial.