Abstract

Positron emission tomography (PET and PET /CT) imaging facilities allow physicians and veterinarians to use this powerful molecular imaging technique for clinical and research applications, especially in oncology. PET /CT offers an opportunity to evaluate the metabolic nature of cancer in addition to anatomical data. Unlike small animal models of human cancers, naturally occurring cancers in companion animals represent a great opportunity to validate PET /CT imaging techniques, they benefit tumor-bearing pets while simultaneously advancing development of new imaging techniques and therapeutic strategies for human cancers. This lecture gives an overview of PET /CT imaging modality and its clinical and research applications in veterinary oncology and the potential research collaborations between veterinarians and physicians.

About Dr. Liu: Dr. Liu received his M.D. from the National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan in 1977. He has been working in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital since 1977, and has been the Director of the Department of Nuclear Medicine and National PET /Cyclotron Center from 1996 – 2003. He is currently the Professor and Director of the Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, School of Biomedical Science and Engineering and the professor of the Division of Nuclear Medicine, School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University. He was the past President of the Chinese Society of Nuclear Medicine, Taiwan and the founding President of Taiwanese Society for Molecular Imaging (TSMI) and immediate past President of Federation of Asian Society for Molecular Imaging (FASMI), and is currently the President of TSMI . His research interests include nuclear oncology, neuronuclear medicine, and molecular imaging. He has published 322 scientific papers in the field of preclinical and clinical nuclear medicine and molecular imaging.