Advances of small-molecule protein kinase inhibitor-based PET tracers with prospective application in pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most common malignancies of digestive tract. The targeted therapeutic drugs and specific diagnostic probes for pancreatic cancer include antibodies, affinity ligands, polypeptides, and small-molecule protein kinase inhibitors. The research on small-molecule protein kinase inhibitors is a hot topic of both preclinical research and clinical application in recent years. The advances in this area were briefly reviewed in this article. Data indicated that H-89, a kind of isoquinoline sulfonamide small molecule, might be one of the best small-molecule protein kinase inhibitors to treat pancreatic cancer, and if labeled with positron emitter, it might become a potential PET tracer for pancreatic cancer.