The research progress of small molecule radioactive probes for diagnosis of breast cancer
Breast cancer poses a serious threat to women′s health.Clinically,accurate classification of breast cancer is the prerequisite for effective treatment.Positron emission tomography(PET)and single photon emission computed tomography(SPECT)provide powerful tools for the diagnosis and treatment of mammary cancer.Radioactive probes are the core elements of PET and SPECT technology.Summarizing and analyzing the research progress of breast cancer diagnostic probes are expected to inspire the development of novel probes and facilitate the use of classic probes.The literatures reported the small molecule radioactive probes for diagnosis of breast cancer at home and abroad were analyzed and summarized over these years.Starting from the classification of breast cancer and the challenges encountered by biopsy technology,we first presented the PET and SPECT technology and their unique advantages in the diagnosis of breast cancer,then summarized the discovery process and research progress of small molecule radioactive probes targeting estrogen receptor,progesterone receptor and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 in detail,and finally pointed out the problems encountered in the applications of the widely recognized probes[18 F]fluoroestradiol(FES)and[18 F]fluorofuranylnorprogesterone(FFNP)and the possible solutions.Several suggestions on the future clinical application of these classical probes were also proposed eventually.There are several intrinsic drawbacks of the existing small molecule radioactive probes for the diagnosis of breast cancer such as strong liposolubility,unsatisfactory metabolic characteristics,and high hepatointestinal background in imaging.It is of great practical significance to develop new types of probes to expand the application of nuclear medical imaging technology in the diagnosis of breast cancer.