31. Clinical Application of

Area of Science:

• Nuclear Medicine
• Oncology
• Radiochemistry

Background:

• Fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET is widely used for tumor detection but has limitations like false positives/negatives due to physiological uptake and the hyperglycemic effect.
• These limitations necessitate the exploration of alternative PET tracers for improved cancer diagnosis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the clinical feasibility and diagnostic accuracy of Carbon-11 acetate ([C-11]acetate) PET imaging in patients with various malignancies.
• To compare the performance of [C-11]acetate PET with established methods, particularly FDG PET.

Main Methods:

• [C-11]acetate PET imaging was performed on 513 patients with diverse types of cancer.
• High-resolution, whole-body images were acquired using a modern PET scanner with a 20 mCi dosage of [C-11]acetate.

Main Results:

• [C-11]acetate PET demonstrated high accuracy in detecting meningioma (97%), glioma (91%), and nasopharyngeal cancer (93%).
• It also showed good accuracy for lymphoma (85%), non-small cell lung cancer (81%), colon cancer (78%), renal cell cancer (80%), and ovarian cancer (76%).
• Advantages include rapid imaging (within 45 minutes post-injection), absence of hyperglycemic effects, and no 'sink phenomenon'.

Conclusions:

• [C-11]acetate PET is a clinically valuable tool for detecting various malignant tumors.
• [C-11]acetate PET may serve as a complementary imaging modality to FDG PET in oncological practice.
• Limitations include potential increased uptake in salivary glands, pancreas, and bowels, and reliance on on-site cyclotrons.