oa Editorial [Hot topic: Advances in Molecular Imaging From Bench to Bedside (Co-Guest Editors: Hong Zhang and David J. Yang)]

Molecular imaging techniques play roles in the development of novel therapies since they generate information on target expressions, pathway activities and cell functions in the intact organism. The imaging technologies enable the comprehensive characterization of therapeutic intervention. The 5th Hangzhou International Molecular Imaging Conference (HIMIC) annual meeting in Advances in Molecular Imaging From Bench to Bedside was held October 22 - 24, 2009, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. HIMIC is the first international conference on molecular imaging held in China sponsored by Zhejiang University and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Zhejiang University is the top-3 and largest national university in China, and the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University is the leading institute in molecular imaging in China. This annual conference was initiated in 2005. This special conference is focused on advances in molecular imaging. There were 150 attendees including 12 invited speakers. Young Investigator awards were judged by committee members (invited speakers) and presented by Committee Chairman, Prof. Michael Welch (University of Washington, St. Louis, MO). Topics covered were advances in bioimaging applications in pre-clinical drug discovery, drug development and regulatory developments in oncology, effect of contrast agent in PET/CT, dosimetric determination for a radiotheranostic agent, imaging technology in drug development, and validation of imaging agents on new molecular targets. The meeting was concluded by Prof. Hong Zhang (Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University, China), and Prof. E. Edmund Kim, MD (University of Texas MD Anderson, Houston, TX) discussed prediction and evaluation of therapeutic response by utilizing molecular imaging. In this conference, the values of new radiopharmaceuticals for PET in pre-clinic studies and patients were overviewed by Prof. Michael Welch. He addressed that new radiopharmaceuticals provide measurements of the biochemistry and biology of disease for more direct assessments of the impact of a drug on disease to stratify patients into treatment responders and nonresponders. He pointed out that the challenges were the availability of isotopes, methods for automation, regulatory compliance, and intellectual rights. Molecular theranostic approaches of cancers using kit probes were overviewed by Prof. David Yang (UT MD Anderson, Houston, TX). He reported the use of chelators to trap metallic isotopes for theranostic applications. The values of PET/CT and SPECT/CT in clinic applications were reviewed by Prof. Zachary Grossman, MD (Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York) and Prof. E. Edmund Kim, MD. Both emphasized that hybrid imaging modalities improve the accuracy of clinical trials. However, imaging standardization and harmonization of the centralized IND are important in imaging. Molecular imaging in cardiology and neurology were reported by Prof. Carrio Ignasi, MD (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain) (presented by Assistant Prof. Mei Tian, MD at University of Texas MD Anderson, Houston, TX). They reported the approaches using reporter gene imaging and cell trafficking for nuclear cardiology and novel tracers for neurology. Prof. June-Key Chung, MD (Seoul National University, Korea) also reported the use of radioiodine as a sodium iodide symporter to assess NIS gene expression in thyroid cancer. These speakers emphasize that molecular imaging provide pharmacokinetics in disease tissue and throughout the other tissues of body linked to the pharmacokinetics in blood and use drugs or drug analogs as imaging probes to assess target occupancy for determining dosing and whether the drug is efficacious. Prof. Yasuhisa Fujibayashi (University of Fukui, Japan) reported the use of Cu-ATSM in PET imaging and radionuclide therapy in cancer stem cells. He addressed the value of using a hypoxic marker to assess cancer stem cell-rich region. Reduce respiratory motion artifact techniques during imaging were reviewed by Associ Prof. Osama Mawlawi (University of Texas MD Anderson, Houston, TX). He also discussed the use of low dose CT to PET scanners for treatment planning. Assis Prof. Keon Wook Kang, MD (Seoul National University, Korea) reported that Ga-68 NOTA-RGD, an angiogenesis tracer, allows quicker assessment of drug responses to colorectal patients into different drug regimens, either switching refractory patients to another drug or drug combination (responder vs non-responder). Efficient synthesis of F-18 labeled peptide with high binding affinity was overviewed by Dr. Ananth Srinivasan (Bayer Schering Pharma, Germany). The prospective for molecular imaging should be focused on emerging trends (horizon technologies, government/field initiatives) in molecular imaging and emphasized on accelerating drug development with fast approval process of candidate drugs using molecular imaging technologies. The website for this meeting can be found at http://www.molecularimaging.ac.cn