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11C-choline PET/CT tumor recurrence detection and survival prediction in post-treatment patients with high-grade gliomas

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to evaluate the role of 11C-choline positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in detecting tumor recurrence and predicting survival in post-treatment patients with high-grade gliomas. A total of 16 previously treated histopathologically proven high-grade glioma patients were subjected to 11C-choline PET/CT scan and survival analysis. We found that the sensitivity and specificity of 11C-choline PET/CT were 100 and 70 %, whereas those of Gd-MRI were 83.3 and 60 %, respectively. By Cox regression analysis, 11C-choline T/N ratio correlated obviously with overall survival (OS) (hazard ratio = 2.644, 95 % confidence interval [CI] = 1.027–6.807, p = 0.044) independent of Karnofsky performance score. Patients with lower T/N ratio (tumor uptake/normal brain tissue uptake) (≤1.42) had longer survival times than patients with higher T/N ratio (median OS = 15.4 vs. 5.3 months, p < 0.001; progression-free survival (PFS) =4.5 vs. 0.8 months, p = 0.004). Thus, this preliminary study suggests that 11C-choline PET/CT is highly sensitive in detecting tumor recurrence in post-treatment patients with high-grade gliomas. Moreover, our preliminary results suggest that T/N ratio measured by 11C-choline maybe serves as a predictor of patients’ survival with suspected recurrent glioma.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the staff of the PET/CT Center, Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, particularly Shuqiang Zhao, Zheng Fu, Xiaorong Sun, and Jinsong Zheng, for their technical support. This work was supported in part by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (ZR2012HL41).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, No. 440, Jiyan Road, Jinan, 250117, China

    Wanhu Li

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, No. 440, Jiyan Road, Jinan, 250117, China

    Li Ma

  3. Department of Surgery, Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, No. 440, Jiyan Road, Jinan, 250117, China

    Xiaoyue Wang

  4. Department of Pathology, Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, No. 440, Jiyan Road, Jinan, 250117, China

    Jujie Sun

  5. Department of Radiation Oncology, Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, No. 440, Jiyan Road, Jinan, 250117, China

    Suzhen Wang & Xudong Hu

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  1. Wanhu Li
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  2. Li Ma
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  3. Xiaoyue Wang
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  4. Jujie Sun
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  5. Suzhen Wang
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  6. Xudong Hu
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Correspondence to Xudong Hu.

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Wanhu Li and Li Ma equally contributed to this work.

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Li, W., Ma, L., Wang, X. et al. 11C-choline PET/CT tumor recurrence detection and survival prediction in post-treatment patients with high-grade gliomas. Tumor Biol. 35, 12353–12360 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-014-2549-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-014-2549-x

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