The use of amino acid PET and conventional MRI for monitoring of brain tumor therapy

Norbert Galldiks; Ian Law; Whitney B Pope; Javier Arbizu; Karl-Josef Langen

doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2016.12.020

The use of amino acid PET and conventional MRI for monitoring of brain tumor therapy

Neuroimage Clin. 2016 Dec 18:13:386-394. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2016.12.020. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Norbert Galldiks¹, Ian Law², Whitney B Pope³, Javier Arbizu⁴, Karl-Josef Langen⁵

Affiliations

¹ Dept. of Neurology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany; Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Center of Integrated Oncology (CIO), Universities of Cologne and Bonn, Cologne, Germany.
² Dept.of Clinical Physiology, Nuclear Medicine and PET, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
³ Dept. of Radiological Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
⁴ Dept. of Nuclear Medicine, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.
⁵ Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany; Dept. of Nuclear Medicine, University of Aachen, Aachen, Germany.

Abstract

Routine diagnostics and treatment monitoring of brain tumors is usually based on contrast-enhanced MRI. However, the capacity of conventional MRI to differentiate tumor tissue from posttherapeutic effects following neurosurgical resection, chemoradiation, alkylating chemotherapy, radiosurgery, and/or immunotherapy may be limited. Metabolic imaging using PET can provide relevant additional information on tumor metabolism, which allows for more accurate diagnostics especially in clinically equivocal situations. This review article focuses predominantly on the amino acid PET tracers ¹¹C-methyl-l-methionine (MET), O-(2-[¹⁸F]fluoroethyl)-l-tyrosine (FET) and 3,4-dihydroxy-6-[¹⁸F]-fluoro-l-phenylalanine (FDOPA) and summarizes investigations regarding monitoring of brain tumor therapy.

Keywords: Bevacizumab; Checkpoint inhibitors; FDOPA; FET; Glioma; Immunotherapy; MET; PET; Pseudoprogression; Pseudoresponse; Temozolomide.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Amino Acids*
Brain Neoplasms* / diagnostic imaging
Brain Neoplasms* / metabolism
Brain Neoplasms* / therapy
Dihydroxyphenylalanine / analogs & derivatives*
Humans
Methionine / analogs & derivatives*
Positron-Emission Tomography / methods*
Radiopharmaceuticals*
Tyrosine / analogs & derivatives*

Substances

Amino Acids
O-(2-fluoroethyl)tyrosine
Radiopharmaceuticals
fluorodopa F 18
Tyrosine
Dihydroxyphenylalanine
Methionine
methionine methyl ester