Hybrid Translational Imaging: Many Hands Make Light Work Volume 66- Issue 4

Mario Leporace¹* and Ferdinando Calabria²

• ¹Department of Radiology, Cosenza Hospital, 87100 Cosenza, Italy
• ²Department of Nuclear Medicine and Theragnostics, Mariano Santo Hospital, 87100 Cosenza, Italy

Received: August 13, 2026; Published: September 02, 2026

*Corresponding author: Mario Leporace, Department of Radiology, Cosenza Hospital, 87100 Cosenza, Italy

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2026.66.010371

Abstract PDF

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; CT; Hybrid Imaging; Interventional Oncology; MR; PET/CT; PSMA; PET/MR; SPECT/CT; US/CT

Abbreviations: SPECT/CT: Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography / Computed Tomography; PET/CT: Positron Emission Tomography / Computed Tomography; PET/MR: Positron Emission Tomography / Magnetic Resonance; US/CT; Ultrasound / Computed Tomography; PSMA: Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen

Personalized medicine is a new area of medicine aimed at improving diagnostic accuracy and reducing treatment failures. Medical imaging has progressed from simple visualization of the human body to a primary source of analytical approaches for in vivo disease characterization. To date, hybrid imaging describes the physical combination of complementary imaging systems, such as Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography / Computed Tomography (SPECT/CT), Positron Emission Tomography / Computed Tomography (PET/CT), Positron Emission Tomography / Magnetic Resonance (PET/MR), and Ultrasound / Computed Tomography (US/CT). These tools provide combined anatomical and metabolic images, which are based on intrinsically aligned morphological and functional data. The field of hybrid imaging is rapidly expanding to include PET with contrast-enhanced CT [1] or diagnostic MR [2] on a routine basis. Combining different imaging modalities such as PET, and SPECT, with CT or MR, can provide complementary information that has potentially beneficial clinical applications, providing efficient diagnosis, radio-genomics, and therapy planning. Moreover, developing novel radiopharmaceuticals expands the range of diagnostic applications for hybrid scanners to molecular imaging, where biological probes enable disease tracking and monitoring across oncology, neurology, neuro-oncology, and cardiology. PET/CT leads to a significant change in multidisciplinary team management for malignant tumors [3].

Hybrid imaging is also a major development in planning radiotherapy through PET/CT and PET/MR systems to gather information about tumors and create individualized radiation therapy [4-6]. This approach is especially useful for intensity-modulated radiotherapy and is expected to have a significant impact in the future.

Furthermore, hybrid multimodality lesion visualization is constantly improving for targeting-guided biopsies and assessing percutaneous interventions or image-guided surgery [7-9]. The development of radioligands for therapy in nuclear medicine represents the ideal “square the circle”, allowing in vivo systemic administration of a radiolabeled peptide designed to selectively target receptors that are overexpressed on cancer cells, with effects of disease-specific precision medicine, focused on patient care rather than the underlying disease, with a personalized approach. The synergy between diagnostic tracers in nuclear medicine and their therapeutic counterparts is expanding the application of theranostics in prostate cancer with radiolabeled prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and in neuroendocrine tumors with 68Ga/177Lu-labeled somatostatin analogues [10,11]. Thus, the development of radiological or hybrid tools will help to better target treatment and personalize therapies. Furthermore, in the upcoming decade, Artificial Intelligence-based approaches will mainly deal with detecting and segmenting lesions, diagnosing whether they are benign or malignant, determining the stages of the disease, and predicting the prognosis [12].

The prospected challenge requires a translational approach in all professionals involved: scientific progress over the last two decades demonstrated that both nuclear physicians and radiologists approaching hybrid imaging need to perform a personal revolution in the diagnostic attitude and clinical approach intrinsically linked to their field of specialization. The result of this process of innovation is a new generation of diagnosticians, who have acquired the capability to overcome the limits and advantages of the specialization, in strengthening mutual invasibility, during the experience with clinical practice, professional updates, and scientific literature.

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