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O-[18F]fluoromethyl-L-tyrosine is a potential tracer for monitoring tumour response to chemotherapy using PET: an initial comparative in vivo study with deoxyglucose and thymidine

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European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To compare the utility of a new artificial amino acid, O-[18F]fluoromethyl-L-tyrosine ([18F]FMT), for monitoring cancer chemotherapy with deoxyglucose and thymidine.

Methods

[18F]FMT, [14C]deoxyglucose ([14C]DG) and [6-3H]thymidine ([3H]Thd) were applied in this study. A 2.5 mg/kg dose of mitomycin (MMC) was administered to AH272 rat hepatoma-bearing Donryu rats. Tumour uptake of each tracer was measured just before (baseline) and on days 1, 3, 5 and 7 after the MMC administration, 1 h after a mixture of [18F]FMT, [14C]DG and [3H]Thd had been injected, and was shown as DURs (% injected dose/gram tissue normalised for the rat body weight). Dual-tracer macroautoradiographs with [18F]FMT and [14C]DG were also prepared.

Results

The tumour uptake for each tracer decreased earlier than did the tumour size. DURs (mean±SD) at baseline and on days 1, 3, 5 and 7 were as follows: [18F]FMT: 4.68±0.72, 3.34±0.66, 3.13±0.72, 3.42±0.45, 3.01±0.32; [14C]DG: 3.26±0.40, 3.09±0.55, 3.01±0.97, 2.28±0.35, 1.70±0.72; and [3H]Thd: 2.23±0.46, 1.54±0.45, 1.28±0.37, 1.35±0.20, 0.94±0.12. Decrease in [18F]FMT uptake compared with baseline was significant from day 1 (p<0.01), and the decrease in [3H]Thd uptake was also significant on day 1 (p<0.05) and days 3–7 (p<0.01). However, decrease in [14C]DG uptake was only significant from day 5 (p<0.01). Macroautoradiography suggested that the influence of inflammatory cells on the accumulation of [18F]FMT in tumours is smaller than that on the accumulation of [14C]DG.

Conclusion

[18F]FMT uptake shows a rapid and sensitive response to chemotherapy, comparable to that of [3H]Thd, suggesting that it may be applied as a powerful tracer for monitoring of proliferative activity after cancer chemotherapy using PET.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 13670910) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, Culture and Technology, and for Cancer Research (11S-3) from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Oncology, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, 4-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba ward, Sendai, 980-8575, Japan

    Gengo Yamaura, Takashi Yoshioka & Chikashi Ishioka

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine and Radiology, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Hiroshi Fukuda

  3. Division of Nuclear Medicine, CYRIC, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Keichiro Yamaguchi & Manami Suzuki

  4. Division of Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry, CYRIC, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Shozo Furumoto & Ren Iwata

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  1. Gengo Yamaura
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  2. Takashi Yoshioka
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  3. Hiroshi Fukuda
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  4. Keichiro Yamaguchi
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Correspondence to Takashi Yoshioka.

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Yamaura, G., Yoshioka, T., Fukuda, H. et al. O-[18F]fluoromethyl-L-tyrosine is a potential tracer for monitoring tumour response to chemotherapy using PET: an initial comparative in vivo study with deoxyglucose and thymidine. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 33, 1134–1139 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-006-0126-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-006-0126-2

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