PET scanner performance, data acquisition, attenuation correction method and tracer kinetics may vary among studies and may all contribute to divergent SUVs among modalities and study protocols.
Also, appropriate imaging modality and imaging protocols should be used.
Whether the recommended thresholds are also valid for other types of tumours, other treatment modalities and other monitoring protocols remains to be investigated.
To ensure understanding, health states, treatment modalities, research protocols and critical events are described briefly and simply by the research nurse using written materials handed out during training.
Further development, implementation and application of patient- and disease-adapted techniques and protocols of combined modalities as for example SPECT/CT (26), PET/CT, PET/MRI and LINAC-MRI.
The medical, nursing, technical and pharmacy teams are common and shared between the modalities with standardized protocols and practice.
In the production of trials and protocols, if not necessarily their execution, specialists from all the modalities will take part, and most patients are likely to receive at least two of the modalities.
It would be easier, in this respect, to prepare institutional guidelines and protocols that place US in the correct perspective towards all other imaging modalities and, most importantly, towards patients' needs.
Comprehensive intervention protocols are described in terms of dose, timing, specific activities, modalities, and related outcomes.
