The basis of 18F-3'-deoxy-3'-L-fluorothymidine as a proliferation tracer and preclinical study

18F-3'-deoxy-3'-L-fluorothymidine(F-FLT) has been developed as a proliferation tracer in recent years.Imaging and measurement of proliferation with PET could provide clinicians with a non-invasive tool to monitor the response to anticancer treatment.In this review,the basis of 18F-FLT as a proliferation tracer is discussed.And reviewed the current status of 18F-FLT preclinical researches.Although 18F-FLT is a tracer that visualizes cellular proliferation,it also has certain limitations,for example,in comparison with the most widely used PET tracer 18F-FDG,18F-FLT uptake is significant lower in some tumors,and 18F-FLT uptake does not always reflect the tumor cell proliferation rate cause of the different chemothe-rapy regimens. Key words: Cell proliferation;  18F-3'-deoxy-3'-L-fluorothymidine;  Fluorodeoxyglucose F18;  Positron emission tomography;  Thymidine kinase