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. 2024 May 1;49(5):381-386.
doi: 10.1097/RLU.0000000000005174. Epub 2024 Mar 15.

Preoperative 11 C-Methionine PET-MRI in Pediatric Infratentorial Tumors

Pierre-Aurélien Beuriat, Anthime Flaus, Aurélie Portefaix, Alexandru Szathmari  1 , Marc Janier, Marc Hermier  2 , Sylvie Lorthois-Ninou  3 , Christian Scheiber, Sibel Isal  4 , Nicolas Costes  5 , Ines Merida  5 , Sophie Lancelot, Alexandre Vasiljevic  6 , Pierre Leblond  7 , Cécile Faure Conter  7 , Clarisse Saunier  8 , Behrouz Kassai, Matthieu Vinchon  1 , Federico Di Rocco, Carmine Mottolese  1
Affiliations

Preoperative 11 C-Methionine PET-MRI in Pediatric Infratentorial Tumors

Pierre-Aurélien Beuriat et al. Clin Nucl Med. .

Abstract

Purpose: MRI is the main imaging modality for pediatric brain tumors, but amino acid PET can provide additional information. Simultaneous PET-MRI acquisition allows to fully assess the tumor and lower the radiation exposure. Although symptomatic posterior fossa tumors are typically resected, the patient management is evolving and will benefit from an improved preoperative tumor characterization. We aimed to explore, in children with newly diagnosed posterior fossa tumor, the complementarity of the information provided by amino acid PET and MRI parameters and the correlation to histopathological results.

Patients and methods: Children with a newly diagnosed posterior fossa tumor prospectively underwent a preoperative 11 C-methionine (MET) PET-MRI. Images were assessed visually and semiquantitatively. Using correlation, minimum apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC min ) and contrast enhancement were compared with MET SUV max . The diameter of the enhancing lesions was compared with metabolic tumoral volume. Lesions were classified according to the 2021 World Health Organization (WHO) classification.

Results: Ten children were included 4 pilocytic astrocytomas, 2 medulloblastomas, 1 ganglioglioma, 1 central nervous system embryonal tumor, and 1 schwannoma. All lesions showed visually increased MET uptake. A negative moderate correlation was found between ADC min and SUV max values ( r = -0.39). Mean SUV max was 3.8 (range, 3.3-4.2) in WHO grade 4 versus 2.5 (range, 1.7-3.0) in WHO grade 1 lesions. A positive moderate correlation was found between metabolic tumoral volume and diameter values ( r = 0.34). There was no correlation between SUV max and contrast enhancement intensity ( r = -0.15).

Conclusions: Preoperative 11 C-MET PET and MRI could provide complementary information to characterize pediatric infratentorial tumors.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00397789.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest and sources of funding: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. P.-A.B. received funding from the Hospices Civils de Lyon Foundation, Banque Populaire AURA, and the Flavien Foundation for their financial support.

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