Future Directions in PET Imaging of Lung Cancer.

There is an ongoing and successful effort in developing new radiopharmaceuticals that coupled with new developments in chemistry and instrumentation offers the potential of rapidly defining imaging biomarkers and theranostic paradigms. The overarching challenge remains in funding and approving such agents; the Food and Drug Administration in the United States is making efforts to improve the process, but the time to release PET agents from the regulator shackles is surely now, to bring to patients the excellence of preclinical work that has already been done.