The potential use of 2-[¹⁸F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-galactose as a PET/CT tracer for detection of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

The aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of using the hepatocyte-specific positron emission tomography (PET) tracer 2-[(18)F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-galactose (FDGal) as a tracer for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

METHODS:

In addition to standard clinical investigations, 39 patients with known HCC or suspected of having HCC underwent a partial-body FDGal PET/CT (from base of skull to mid-thigh). Diagnosis of HCC was based on internationally approved criteria. FDGal PET/CT images were analysed for areas with high (hot spots) or low (cold spots) tracer accumulation when compared to surrounding tissue.

RESULTS:

Seven patients did not have HCC and FDGal PET/CT was negative in each of them. Twenty-three patients had HCC and were included before treatment. FDGal PET/CT correctly identified 22 of these patients, which was comparable to contrast-enhanced CT. Interestingly, FDGal PET/CT was conclusive in 12 patients in whom conventional imaging techniques were inconclusive and required additional diagnostic investigations or close follow-up. Nine patients were included after treatment of HCC and in these patients FDGal PET/CT was able to distinguish between viable tumour tissue as hot spots and areas with low metabolic activity as cold spots. FDGal PET/CT detected extrahepatic disease in nine patients which was a novel finding in eight patients.

CONCLUSION:

FDGal PET/CT has great clinical potential as a PET tracer for detection of extra- but also intrahepatic HCC. In the present study, the specificity of FDGal PET/CT was 100%, which is very promising but needs to be confirmed in a larger, prospective study.

• Authors: Michael Sørensen, Kim Frisch, Dirk Bender, Susanne Keiding
• Journal: European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging (Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging) Vol. 38 Issue 9 Pg. 1723-31 (Sep 2011) ISSN: 1619-7089 [Electronic] Germany
• PMID: 21553087 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Radioactive Tracers
• Fucose
• 2-deoxy-2-fluorogalactose

Topics

• Adult
• Aged
• Aged, 80 and over
• Biological Transport
• Carcinoma, Hepatocellular (diagnostic imaging, metabolism)
• Feasibility Studies
• Female
• Fucose (analogs & derivatives)
• Humans
• Liver Neoplasms (diagnostic imaging, metabolism)
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Multimodal Imaging (methods)
• Positron-Emission Tomography
• Radioactive Tracers
• Retrospective Studies
• Tomography, X-Ray Computed