18F-FDOPA PET/CT SUV-Derived Indices and Volumetric Parameters Correlation in Patients with Primary Brain Tumors

Abstract

Novel parameters in PET imaging, such as volumetric parameters, are gaining interest in the scientific literature, but the role of dopaminergic tumor volume (DTV) and total lesion F-DOPA activity (TLDA) and the correlation between volumetric and SUV-derived parameters are not well defined yet. One hundred and thirty-three patients that underwent 18F-FDOPA imaging for primary brain tumors were included in this retrospective study. SUV-derived indices were calculated (the occipital region was chosen to generate ratios of tumor SUV) and compared with volumetric parameters. Regression models were applied in univariate analysis and lnSUVmax was positively associated with lnDTV (beta 0.42, p = 0.007), the lnSUVmax ratio was positively associated with lnDTV (beta 0.80, p = 0.011), lnSUVmax was positively associated with lnTLDA (beta 1.27, p < 0.0001), and the lnSUVmax ratio was positively associated with lnTLDA (beta 1.87, p < 0.0001). Our study demonstrates that volumetric uptake parameters in 18F-FDOPA PET/CT are easier to assess in primary brain tumors with higher SUV max and SUV max ratios, and supports the emerging role of volumetric parameters in the data interpretation.

Towards an Automated Approach to the Semi-Quantification of [18F]F-DOPA PET in Pediatric-Type Diffuse Gliomas

“…Defining target and normalization regions in oncological PET imaging is a challenging task due to the inherent variability and the methodological drawbacks of common manual or threshold-based procedures (e.g., time consumption, low reproducibility, scanner type, reconstruction algorithm, and image noise [23]). This also certainly applies to the quantitative approach to [ 18 F]F-DOPA PET [24][25][26]. However, as far as we know, there is currently no method for extracting unbiased quantitative information from neuro-oncological [ 18 F]F-DOPA, whereas methods for such extraction are available for adults [ 18 F]FET PET analysis [27,28].…”