Role of molecular functional imaging in present era of evidence based cancer medicine: to image or to imagine?

Learning objectives Molecular functional imaging (MFI) has given a newer insight to the medical imaging and has diversified the role of imaging in the field of the translational cancer medicine and has an indispensible role to play in screening, early diagnosis, staging, predicting prognosis, therapy delivery, therapy monitoring and follow-up. Overall there has been a significant development in the field of molecular imaging and its utilisation in the perspective of the biomedical research which has led to better understanding of the signalling pathways in the tumourigenesis and novel drug discoveries. Review and Highlight the complementary role of these techniques in the detection and staging of tumours and which of these techniques is more adequate for clinical scenarios in oncology.