Abstract
Aim: Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging is a useful tool for assisting in correct differentiation of tumor progression from reactive changes, and the radiolabeled amino acid analog tracer O-(2-18F-fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (FET)-PET is amongst the most frequently used. The FET-PET images need to be quantitatively correct in order to be used clinically, which require accurate attenuation correction (AC) in PET/MRI. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of the subject-specific MR-derived AC method RESOLUTE in post-operative brain tumor patients.Methods: We analyzed 51 post-operative brain tumor patients (68 examinations, 200 MBq [18F]-FET) investigated in a PET/MRI scanner. MR-AC maps were acquired using: (1) the Dixon water fat separation sequence, (2) the ultra short echo time (UTE) sequences, (3) calculated using our new RESOLUTE methodology, and (4) a same day low-dose CT used as reference “gold standard.” For each subject and each AC method the tumor was delineated by isocontouring tracer uptake above a tumor(T)-to-brain background (B) activity ratio of 1.6. We measured B, tumor mean and maximal activity (TMEAN, TMAX), biological tumor volume (BTV), and calculated the clinical metrics TMEAN/B and TMAX/B.Results: When using RESOLUTE 5/68 studies did not meet our predefined acceptance criteria of TMAX/B difference to CT-AC < ±0.1 or 5%, TMEAN/B < ±0.05 or 5%, and BTV < ±2 mL or 10%. In total, 46/68 studies failed our acceptance criteria using Dixon, and 26/68 using UTE. The 95% limits of agreement for TMAX/B was for RESOLUTE (−3%; 4%), Dixon (−9%; 16%), and UTE (−7%; 10%). The absolute error when measuring BTV was 0.7 ± 1.9 mL (N.S) with RESOLUTE, 5.3 ± 10 mL using Dixon, and 1.7 ± 3.7 mL using UTE. RESOLUTE performed best in the identification of the location of peak activity and in brain tumor follow-up monitoring using clinical FET PET metrics.Conclusions: Overall, we found RESOLUTE to be the AC method that most robustly reproduced the CT-AC clinical metrics per se, during follow-up, and when interpreted into defined clinical use cut-off criteria and into the patient history. RESOLUTE is especially suitable for brain tumor patients, as these often present with distorted anatomy where other methods based on atlas/template information might fail.
Highlights
Conventional MRI including T1 weighted imaging after gadolinium contrast is the current method of choice for diagnosis and follow-up of cerebral brain tumors (Galldiks et al, 2015b)
RESOLUTE was able to correctly identify and image the inserted titanium implants with one exception, a titanium mesh dominated by signal voids (Figure 1), which was excluded from group analysis
Visual reading showed that RESOLUTE had the tendency to build up a denser and larger representation of the titanium clamp by 1–3 mm that is apparent from CT-attenuation correction (AC) (Figure 2)
Summary
Conventional MRI including T1 weighted imaging after gadolinium contrast is the current method of choice for diagnosis and follow-up of cerebral brain tumors (Galldiks et al, 2015b). Tumor relapse typically presents as a contrast-enhanced region that can be difficult to distinguish from e.g., post-operative changes or radiation damage (Mullins et al, 2005; Vander Borght et al, 2006; Galldiks et al, 2015a). In gliomas, these post-operative changes are difficult to predict as they occur at different time points after treatment, from within the first 3 months of radiotherapy up to several years after (Galldiks et al, 2015b). FET-PET is superior to CT and MRI for estimating the true tumor extent both in low- and high-grade gliomas (Kracht et al, 2004; Vander Borght et al, 2006), and the postresection PET volume, the biological tumor volume (BTV), is a significant prognostic factor for overall survival in glioblastoma multiforme (Poulsen et al, 2017)
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