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. 2013 Oct;40(11):1692-700.
doi: 10.1007/s00259-013-2477-9. Epub 2013 Jun 26.

Diagnostic usefulness of ¹⁸F-FAMT PET and L-type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1) expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Aiko Nobusawa  1 , Mai Kim, Kyoichi Kaira, Go Miyashita, Akihide Negishi, Noboru Oriuchi, Tetsuya Higuchi, Yoshito Tsushima, Yoshikatsu Kanai, Satoshi Yokoo, Tetsunari Oyama
Affiliations

Diagnostic usefulness of ¹⁸F-FAMT PET and L-type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1) expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Aiko Nobusawa et al. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2013 Oct.

Abstract

Purpose: L-[3-(18)F]-α-Methyltyrosine ((18)F-FAMT) was developed as an amino acid tracer for PET imaging to provide better specificity than 2-[(18)F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose ((18)F-FDG) PET for cancer diagnosis. We investigated the diagnostic usefulness of (18)F-FAMT in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). The correlation between tumour uptake of (18)F-FAMT and L-type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1) expression was determined.

Methods: The study group comprised 68 OSCC patients who underwent both (18)F-FAMT and (18)F-FDG PET. Resected tumour sections were stained by immunohistochemistry for LAT1, CD98 and Ki-67, and microvessel density was determined in terms of CD34 and p53 expression.

Results: The sensitivity of primary tumour detection by (18)F-FAMT and (18)F-FDG PET was 98 % and 100 %, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of (18)F-FAMT PET for detecting malignant lymph nodes were 68 %, 99 % and 97 %, respectively, and equivalent values for (18)F-FDG PET were 84 %, 94 % and 94 %, respectively. The specificity and accuracy of (18)F-FAMT were significantly higher than those of (18)F-FDG. The uptake of (18)F-FAMT was significantly correlated with LAT1 expression, cell proliferation and advanced stage. The expression of LAT1 in OSCC cells was closely correlated with CD98 levels, cell proliferation and angiogenesis.

Conclusion: (18)F-FAMT PET showed higher specificity for detecting malignant lesions than (18)F-FDG PET. The uptake of (18)F-FAMT by OSCC cells can be determined by the presence of LAT1 expression and tumour cell proliferation.

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