Is 3'-deoxy-3'-(18)F-fluorothymidine a better marker for tumour response than (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose?

3'-Deoxy-3'-(18)F-fluorothymidine (FLT) was developed in 1998 by Shields and co-workers because monitoring of treatment response would be facilitated by imaging agents able to provide measures of tissue and tumour proliferation. Since then, FLT metabolism has been clarified in more detail in cell culture and experimental animal tumour models and also in clinical studies. Recently, FLT has increasingly been used for the assessment of response to anticancer treatment, mainly in tumour xenograft SCID mouse models; in contrast, clinical data are scarce. In this article we briefly summarise the intermediary metabolism of FLT and its application as an anticancer treatment response probe. The potential value and limitations of FLT as a highly promising proliferation imaging probe and its use for monitoring of treatment response are discussed.