Hokkaido University · Medicine
Professor Kenji Hirata's research lab specializes in molecular imaging, particularly positron emission tomography (PET), with a focus on improving cancer diagnosis, treatment monitoring, and prognosis prediction. The lab investigates quantitative PET biomarkers using radiotracers such as ¹⁸F-FDG and ¹⁸F-fluoromisonidazole (FMISO) to assess tumor metabolism, hypoxia, and treatment response. A key research direction involves developing semi-automated methods for robust and reproducible tumor volume and uptake measurement, reducing observer variability and enhancing clinical utility. The lab's work aims to translate advanced PET imaging techniques into practical tools for personalized oncology.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Our semi-automated method could define the liver SUV robustly as the threshold value used for tumor volume measurements according to PERCIST. The method could avoid possible subjective bias of manual liver VOI placement and is thus expected to improve clinical performance of volume-based parameters for prediction of cancer treatment response.
Glioma is the most common malignant brain tumor. Hypoxia is closely related to the malignancy of gliomas, and positron emission tomography (PET) can noninvasively visualize the degree and the expansion of hypoxia. Currently, <sup>18</sup>F-fluoromisonidazole (FMISO) is the most common radiotracer for hypoxia imaging. The clinical usefulness of FMISO PET has been established; it can distinguish glioblastomas from lower-grade gliomas and can predict the microenvironment of a tumor, including necro
Positron emission tomography (PET) has unique characteristics for quantitative assessment of tumour biology in vivo. Accumulation of F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) may reflect tumour characteristics based on its metabolic activity. Quantitative assessment of FDG uptake can often be applied for treatment monitoring after chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. Numerous studies indicated biochemical change assessed by FDG PET as a more sensitive marker than morphological change estimated by CT or MRI. I
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