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Carbon-11-methionine positron emission tomography imaging of chordoma

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Abstract

Objective

Chordoma is a rare malignant bone tumor that arises from notochord remnants. This is the first trial to investigate the utility of 11C-methionine (MET) positron emission tomography (PET) in the imaging of chordoma before and after carbon-ion radiotherapy (CIRT).

Design and patients

Fifteen patients with chordoma were investigated with MET-PET before and after CIRT and the findings analyzed visually and quantitatively. Tumor MET uptake was evaluated by tumor-to-nontumor ratio (T/N ratio).

Results

In 12 (80%) patients chordoma was clearly visible in the baseline MET-PET study with a mean T/N ratio of 3.3±1.7. The MET uptake decreased significantly to 2.3±1.4 after CIRT (P<0.05). A significant reduction in tumor MET uptake of 24% was observed after CIRT. Fourteen (93%) patients showed no local recurrence after CIRT with a median follow-up time of 20 months.

Conclusion

This study has demonstrated that MET-PET is feasible for imaging of chordoma. MET-PET could provide important tumor metabolic information for the therapeutic monitoring of chordoma after CIRT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Imaging, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, Japan

    Hong Zhang, Mei Tian, Tetsuya Suhara, Kazutoshi Suzuki & Shuji Tanada

  2. Department of Medical Imaging, Research Center Hospital for Charged Particle Therapy, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, 4-9-1, Anagawa, Inage-ku, 263-8555, Chiba, Japan

    Hong Zhang

  3. Clinical Diagnosis Section, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, Japan

    Kyosan Yoshikawa, Katsumi Tamura, Kenji Sagou & Susumu Kandatsu

  4. Research Center for Charged Particle Therapy, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba, Japan

    Hirohiko Tsujii

Authors
  1. Hong Zhang
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  2. Kyosan Yoshikawa
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  3. Katsumi Tamura
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  4. Kenji Sagou
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  5. Mei Tian
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  6. Tetsuya Suhara
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  7. Susumu Kandatsu
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  8. Kazutoshi Suzuki
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  9. Shuji Tanada
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  10. Hirohiko Tsujii
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kyosan Yoshikawa.

Additional information

This study was part of the 10-Year Strategy for Cancer Control of the Japanese Government and was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Japan Government

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Zhang, H., Yoshikawa, K., Tamura, K. et al. Carbon-11-methionine positron emission tomography imaging of chordoma. Skeletal Radiol 33, 524–530 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-004-0815-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-004-0815-5

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