Small animal imaging: current technology and perspectives for oncological imaging

Advances in the biomedical sciences have been accelerated by the introduction of many new imaging technologies in recent years. With animal models widely used in the basic and pre-clinical sciences, finding ways to conduct animal experimants more accurately and efficiently becomes a key factor in the sucess and timeliness of research. Non-invasive imaging technologies prove to be extremely valuable tools in performing such studies and have created the recent surge in small animal imaging. This review is focused on three modalities, PET, MR and optical imaging which are avaliable to the scientist for oncological investigations in animals. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.