Editorial

Cancer remains one of the major causes of death in the Western world, and it is increasing in developing countries as well as in the industrial world. The overall costs of cancer management relentlessly increase year on year. Therefore, there are huge challenges ahead for all those involved in the care of cancer patients that include the development of new and more effective therapies and the development of new technologies to diagnose cancer at an earlier stage, to define the presence and extent of established tumors more accurately, and to monitor new therapies directed at specific biological targets. Imaging is now recognized as pivotal to the management of cancer patients, and oncologic imaging is an increasingly large component of the general workload in the radiologic department. The multichannel computed tomography (CT) is transforming axial CT into a 3D modality, and the positron emission tomography (PET) integrated with CT provides a precise tumor localization combined with exquisite anatomical and morphological details. The important development in ultrasonography is an introduction of non-destructive microbubble contrast agents for enhancing vascular structures or lesions. In this issue there are seven excellent updated review articles including three dealing with evaluation of various cancers utilizing different imaging modalities (restaging renal cell cancer with F-18 FDG PET, diagnosing prostate cancer in Spain using color doppler ultrasonography and detection of hepatic metastases with contrasted ultrasonography), one summarizing use of micro-CT in basic animal research, one reporting safe and effective laser thermal ablation (LTA) therapy of small hepatocellular carcinoma, and one demonstarting variants and artefacts of bone mineral density (BMT) study using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) which is widely used in clinical practice for the management of osteoporosis. The demand for BMD and physician visits related to osteoporosis has seen a dramatic increase with a significant publicity. The precision of DEXA analysis is what makes the technology such a clinically useful tool. The interpreter should be vigilant with regard to the proper bone margins and the presence of mettallic hardware or artefacts.