Characterizing Renal Masses with Iodine-124 PET-CT Imaging

The ubiquitous use of CT imaging has led to a considerable rise in the number of patients presenting with unsuspected findings of small renal masses (≤4 cm). Given improvements in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality associated with preserving renal function, nephron-sparing surgery has increasingly been preferred over radical nephrectomy for such patients. However, deciding between surgical intervention and surveillance is a common clinical dilemma, especially for patients with multiple comorbidities. Renal-mass biopsies have traditionally been used in this scenario to identify carcinomas, but the procedure has limitations, especially for smaller lesions or in settings where clinical volumes might be limited.

Positron emission tomography/…