Yonsei University · Medicine
Professor Mijin Yun's research lab specializes in molecular imaging and nuclear medicine, with a focus on advancing positron emission tomography (PET) applications in oncology. The lab investigates the metabolic behavior of cancer cells using radiotracers such as 18F-FDG and 11C-acetate to understand tumor metabolism, particularly in gastrointestinal and liver cancers. Key research directions include improving cancer detection and characterization through metabolic imaging, exploring the interplay between glycolysis and alternative metabolic pathways in tumor progression, and evaluating the clinical utility of PET/CT in staging and treatment planning. The lab also contributes to the fundamental understanding of physiological and pathological FDG uptake in vascular structures and tissues.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
FDG PET showed excellent diagnostic performance in differentiating adrenal lesions detected on CT or MRI. Because FDG PET has the additional advantage of evaluating the primary lesions as well as metastases, it could be cost-effective and the modality of choice for the characterization of adrenal lesions, especially in patients with malignancy.
Vascular FDG uptake is present in 50% of the patients examined for this study, with an increased prevalence in older patients. This vascular uptake might be explained by smooth muscle metabolism in the media, subendothelial smooth muscle proliferation from senescence, and the presence of macrophages within the atherosclerotic plaque. The relative contribution of these sources needs further investigation.
(18)F-FDG PET is as accurate as CT for the detection of primary tumors of either EGC or AGC. The low sensitivities of PET and CT were insufficient to allow decision making on the extent of lymphadenectomy. In contrast, the high specificity of PET for N disease appeared valuable, and the presence of N disease on PET may have a clinically significant impact on the choice of initial therapy.
The patterns of (18)F-FDG and (11)C-acetate uptake seemed to complement each other in both human HCC and HCC cell lines. Fatty acid synthase expression was seen in cells with high (18)F-FDG or (11)C-acetate uptake, suggesting glucose- or acetate-dependent lipid synthesis. Acetyl CoA synthetase appears to be important in (11)C-acetate uptake and acetate-dependent lipid synthesis for the growth of cancer cells with a low-glycolysis phenotype. Inhibition of acetyl CoA synthetase in these cells may
Aerobic glycolysis has been the most important hypothesis in cancer metabolism. It seems to be related to increased bioenergetic and biosynthetic needs in rapidly proliferating cancer cells. To this end, F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), a glucose analog, became widely popular for the detection of malignancies combined with positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). Although the potential roles of FDG PET/CT in primary tumor detection are not fully established, it seems to have a li
Metal-insulator-semiconductor structures with conjugated polymer ethyl-hexyl substituted polyfluorene (PF2̱6) as the active semiconductor layer, Al2O3 as the insulating oxide layer, and p+-Si as the metal layer have been characterized by means of capacitance-voltage (C-V) and conductance-voltage methods. The negative shift of the flat-band voltage with increasing frequency arises from positive interface charges in the PF2̱6∕Al2O3 layer. From C-V measurements the unintentional doping density is e
Gastric distension by having patients drink a glass of water seems to be a simple, cost-effective way of improving the diagnostic accuracy of (18)F-FDG PET in patients with suspected recurrence in the remnant stomach. Visual analysis with special attention to the configuration of (18)F-FDG activity after water ingestion seems to be more useful than the change in SUV in evaluating the remnant stomach.
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