Pioneering and fundamental achievements on the development of positron emission tomography (PET) in oncology.

Positron emission tomography (PET) with (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)F-FDG), a glucose analog, is widely used throughout the world as an indispensable imaging modality for the management of cancer treatment. This article reviews the pioneering achievements of PET in oncology with a focus on the development of PET that occurred from 1980 through the early-1990s. (18)F-FDG was first applied for imaging of animal tumors in 1980 and for brain tumor imaging clinically in 1982.