Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Dec 20;8(6):428-440.
eCollection 2018.

Preclinical PET tracers for the evaluation of sarcomas: understanding tumor biology

Ian R Sigal  1 , Ronnie Sebro  1   2   3   4
Affiliations
Review

Preclinical PET tracers for the evaluation of sarcomas: understanding tumor biology

Ian R Sigal et al. Am J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. .

Abstract

Sarcomas are rare tumors of mesenchymal origin. Sarcomas display significant histological heterogeneity, resulting in significant imaging heterogeneity. 18F-FDG PET has is increasingly used for the evaluation, staging and surveillance of patients with sarcomas. 18F-FDG PET maximum SUV has been shown to be correlated with sarcoma grade and overall survival. This has led to interest in alternative PET tracers to assess the biological characteristics of tumors and guide treatment decisions. Here we investigate novel PET/CT tracers used for the evaluation of sarcomas over the past 20 years and summarize what we have learned about sarcoma tumor biology from these studies.

Keywords: PET; amino acid PET tracers; hypoxia imaging; nucleoside PET tracers; sarcoma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA diagram. Generated using the PRISMA Flow Diagram Generator by Toronto Health Economics and Technology Assessment Collaboration (http://prisma.thetacollaborative.ca/).
Figure 2
Figure 2
“Baseline and follow-up 18F-FLT positron emission tomography/computed tomography images are shown of 2 patients with angiosarcoma of the breast. The patient shown in (A) exhibited >95% tissue necrosis after neoadjuvant treatment and was classified as a histopathologic responder. The patient in (B) was a histopathologic nonresponder with <5% tissue necrosis after treatment. However, comparable decreases in 18F-FLT uptake of 85% and 71%, respectively, were seen. Therefore, the patient in (B) was misclassified as a metabolic responder by fluorothymidine positron emission tomography analysis. SUVpeak indicates peak standardized uptake value”. Reprinted, with permission, from reference [27].
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) “11C-tyrosine PET image of a sarcoma not otherwise specified with a relatively high PSR and (B) corresponding MIB-1 stained tissue section (400×) of the tumor showing a high number of proliferating cells. All dark nuclei express Ki-67 and have entered the cell cycle. (C) 11C-tyrosine PET image of a malignant schwannoma with a relatively low PSR and (D) corresponding MIB-1 stained tissue section (400×) showing a low number of proliferating cells”. Reprinted, with permission, from reference [5].
Figure 4
Figure 4
“18F-FDG and 18F-FMISO scans (with an attenuation scan for localization) of a grade 2 osteosarcoma of the right femur. The 18F-FMISO image shows pixels with a tissue to blood ratio ≥1.2 in color. The correlation of 18F-FDG vs 18F-FMISO using pixel-by-pixel analysis was r=0.48 for the whole tumor”. Reprinted, with permission, from reference [47].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Chen PH, Mankoff DA, Sebro RA. Clinical overview of the current state and future applications of positron emission tomography in bone and soft tissue sarcoma. Clin Transl Imaging. 2017;5:343–3588.
    1. Fisher SM, Joodi R, Madhuranthakam AJ, Öz OK, Sharma R, Chhabra A. Current utilities of imaging in grading musculoskeletal soft tissue sarcomas. Eur J Radiol. 2016;85:1336–1344. - PubMed
    1. Bielack SS, Kempf-Bielack B, Delling G, Exner GU, Flege S, Helmke K, Kotz R, Salzer-Kuntschik M, Werner M, Winklemann W, Zoubek A, Jürgens H, Winkler K. Prognostic factors in high-grade osteosarcoma of the extremities or trunk: an analysis of 1,702 patients treated on neoadjuvant cooperative osteosarcoma study group protocols. J. Clin. Oncol. 2002;20:776–790. - PubMed
    1. Maretty-Nielsen K. Prognostic factors in soft tissue sarcoma. Dan Med J. 2014;61:B4957. - PubMed
    1. Plaat B, Kole A, Mastik M, Hoekstra H, Molenaar W, Vaalburg W. Protein synthesis rate measured with L-[1-11C]tyrosine positron emission tomography correlates with mitotic activity and MIB-1 antibody-detected proliferation in human soft tissue sarcomas. Eur J Nucl Med. 1999;26:328–332. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources