Abstract
PurposeThe aim of our study was to investigate the efficacy of 18F-Fluciclovine brain PET imaging in recurrent gliomas, and to compare the utility of these images to that of contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and to [11C-methyl]-L-methionine (11C-Methionine) PET imaging. We also sought to gain insight into the factors affecting the uptake of 18F-FACBC in both tumors and normal brain, and specifically to evaluate how the uptake in these tissues varied over an extended period of time post injection.MethodsTwenty-seven patients with recurrent or progressive primary brain tumor (based on clinical and MRI/CT data) were studied using dynamic 18F-Fluciclovine brain imaging for up to 4 h. Of these, 16 patients also had 11C-Methionine brain scans. Visual findings, semi-quantitative analyses and pharmacokinetic modeling of a subset of the 18F-Fluciclovine images was conducted. The information derived from these analyses were compared to data from 11C-Methionine and to contrast-enhanced MRI.Results18F-Fluciclovine was positive for all 27 patients, whereas contrast MRI was indeterminate for three patients. Tumor 18F-Fluciclovine SUVmax ranged from 1.5 to 10.5 (average: 4.5 ± 2.3), while 11C-Methionine’s tumor SUVmax ranged from 2.2 to 10.2 (average: 5.0 ± 2.2). Image contrast was higher with 18F-Fluciclovine compared to 11C-Methionine (p < 0.0001). This was due to 18F-Fluciclovine’s lower background in normal brain tissue (0.5 ± 0.2 compared to 1.3 ± 0.4 for 11C-Methionine). 18F-Fluciclovine uptake in both normal brain and tumors was well described by a simple one-compartment (three-parameter: Vb,k1,k2) model. Normal brain was found to approach transient equilibrium with a half-time that varied greatly, ranging from 1.5 to 8.3 h (mean 2.7 ± 2.3 h), and achieving a consistent final distribution volume averaging 1.4 ± 0.2 ml/cc. Tumors equilibrated more rapidly (t1/2ranging from 4 to 148 min, average 57 ± 51 min), with an average distribution volume of 3.2 ± 1.1 ml/cc. A qualitative comparison showed that the rate of normal brain uptake of 11C-Methionine was much faster than that of 18F-Fluciclovine.ConclusionTumor uptake of 18F-Fluciclovine correlated well with the established brain tumor imaging agent 11C-Methionine but provided significantly higher image contrast. 18F-Fluciclovine may be particularly useful when the contrast MRI is non-diagnostic. Based on the data gathered, we were unable to determine whether Fluciclovine uptake was due solely to recurrent tumor or if inflammation or other processes also contributed.
Highlights
Various amino acid PET tracers have been studied in brain tumors [1, 2]
Studies have shown that tumor detection by amino acid PET imaging is more sensitive than 18F-FDG PET imaging owing to the better tumor-to-normal brain image contrast seen with the amino acids
For one patient, there was no medical record after the 18F-Fluciclovine PET, but magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and PET imaging suggested tumor recurrence
Summary
Various amino acid PET tracers have been studied in brain tumors [1, 2]. They include [methyl-11C]-L-methionine (11CMethionine), O-(2-[18F]-fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (18F-FET) and 6-[18F] -fluoro-L-DOPA (18F-DOPA). Recent studies showed that amino acid PET imaging, including 11C-Methionine and 18F-FET, has greater accuracy than MRI for the evaluation of post-therapeutic effects [1] and of tumor recurrence. The diagnostic accuracies of current amino acid PET tracers (11C-Methionine and 18F-FET), remain suboptimal and the need for further improvement in neuro-imaging approaches persists [1,2,3, 6,7,8]
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