Diagnostic PET Imaging of Mammary Microcalcifications Using Cu-DOTA-Alendronate in a Rat Model of Breast Cancer.

The development of improved breast cancer screening methods is hindered by a lack of cancer-specific imaging agents and effective small-animal models to test them. The purpose of this study was to evaluate Cu-DOTA-alendronate as a mammary microcalcification-targeting PET imaging agent, using an ideal rat model. Our long-term goal is to develop Cu-DOTA-alendronate for the detection and noninvasive differentiation of malignant versus benign breast tumors with PET.