Use of 18F-choline and 11C-choline as contrast agents in positron emission tomography imaging—guided stereotactic biopsy sampling of gliomas

Abstract

The uptake of contrast agents was always low in low-grade gliomas, and the uptake in high-grade glioma was always high. The tumor/normal (T/N) ratio of 18F-choline was 10.5:12 in anaplastic astrocytoma and 13.2:21 in glioblastoma. The 18F-choline yielded slightly superior results compared with 11C-choline with regard to the T/N ratio. In one case of oligodendroglioma the tumor showed no uptake of 18F- and 11C-choline. With this exception, the PET scans of gliomas in which 18F- and 11C-choline contrast agents were added would guide the approach to the most malignant areas for stereotactic biopsy sampling.

Preliminary Study of 11C-Choline PET/CT for T Staging of Locally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: Comparison with 18F-FDG PET/CT

“…Radioactive choline can rapidly incorporate into tumor cells and then through phosphorylation become phosphorylcholine and finally integrate into a phospholipid-that is, phosphatidylcholine (18,19). High uptake of radioactive choline has been confirmed in many types of tumors, such as prostate carcinoma, brain tumors, hepatocellular carcinoma, and bone and soft-tissue sarcoma (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29). To our knowledge, however, no one has evaluated the use of 11 C-choline PET/CT for the diagnosis of NPC.…”

Radiopharmaceuticals for Molecular Imaging

“…Almost all the radiopharmaceuticals for metabolism imaging have developed with slight structural modification of natural molecules, e.g., 11 C-or 18 F-labeled radioactive analogues of carbohydrates, amino acids, nucleotides, and lipids [18,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33].…”

Resection of Gliomas Using Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography Neuronavigation

“…Confirmation of the target of stereotactic biopsy and radiotherapy by PET provides high sensitivity and specificity. 2,[4][5][6] The new PET/CT technique has significantly improved the precision of PET and combines the advantages of structural and functional imaging. 8) Both the PET/CT and neuronavigation systems are based on computer systems, so the method is most practical if the input and output formats match.…”