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. 2008 Mar;35(3):527-31.
doi: 10.1007/s00259-007-0630-z. Epub 2007 Oct 25.

Initial evaluation of 18F-fluorothymidine (FLT) PET/CT scanning for primary pancreatic cancer

A Quon  1 , S T Chang, F Chin, A Kamaya, D W Dick, B W Loo Jr, S S Gambhir, A C Koong
Affiliations

Initial evaluation of 18F-fluorothymidine (FLT) PET/CT scanning for primary pancreatic cancer

A Quon et al. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2008 Mar.

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of (18)F-fluorothymidine (FLT) PET/CT for imaging pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Methods: This was a pilot study of five patients (four males, one female) with newly diagnosed and previously untreated pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Patients underwent FLT PET/CT, (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT, and contrast-enhanced CT scanning before treatment. The presence of cancer was confirmed by histopathological analysis at the time of scanning in all five patients. The degree of FLT and FDG uptake at the primary tumor site was assessed using visual interpretation and semi-quantitative SUV analyses.

Results: The primary tumor size ranged from 2.5 x 2.8 cm to 3.5 x 7.0 cm. The SUV of FLT uptake within the primary tumor ranged from 2.1 to 3.1. Using visual interpretation, the primary cancer could be detected from background activity in two of five patients (40%) on FLT PET/CT. By comparison, FDG uptake was higher in each patient with a SUV range of 3.4 to 10.8, and the primary cancer could be detected from background in all five patients (100%).

Conclusions: In this pilot study of five patients with primary pancreatic adenocarcinoma, FLT PET/CT scanning showed poor lesion detectability and relatively low levels of radiotracer uptake in the primary tumor.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Background abdominal activity on FLT PET (top row) and PET/CT fusion (bottom row) from patient 3. Primary pancreatic tumor was difficult to distinguish from physiologic activity because of the combination of modest FLT radiotracer uptake in the cancer (red arrow) and prominent background activity in bowel (green arrows)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Visual comparison of FDG PET/CT and FLT PET/CT in all five patients. The tumor bed is highlighted by a red arrow in each image. Problematic bowel activity was frequently seen on FLT PET/CT, highlighted by the green arrows
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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