Molecular Imaging in Medicine: Past, Present, and Future

Recent advances in molecular imaging have facilitated early disease detection, diagnosis, and therapeutic efficacy monitoring. Clinicians aspire to achieve prompt diagnosis, provide personalized treatments, and accurately monitor and quantify therapy effectiveness. This has fueled a growing interest in tracing biomarkers and biochemicals associated with disease progression. Identifying crucial biomarkers and refining accurate, minimally invasive monitoring methods are the pivotal focuses of ongoing molecular imaging research. Consequently, there is a notable surge of interest in developing molecular probes and multi-modal systems to enhance imaging capabilities. This review is intended to provide an overview of the promise and limitations of different modalities employed in molecular imaging for patient care, along with the ongoing research aimed at innovating novel imaging agents and devices. Molecular imaging holds the potential to revolutionize disease diagnosis and treatment.