Metabolic imaging of human extremity musculoskeletal tumors by PET

The measurement of glucose utilization rate (GUR) by positron emission tomography (PET) using 18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (FDG) is a valuable method to assess the grade of malignancy of brain tumors. We have designed a feasibility trial to determine whether PET could be used to image and predict the grade of malignancy of human extremity musculoskeletal tumors. Five patients with extremity tumors (four soft-tissue tumors and one osteogenic tumor) were studied. Peak and mean apparent GURs were determined in the tumor region. All tumors were subsequently resected and graded in a standard fashion using the NCI grading system. Peak apparent GURs ranged from 3.3 mg/100 g/min to 15.2 mg/100 g/min, with the highest values found in the high grade tumors. Although the number of patients studied was small, a good correspondence was shown between GURs and histopathologic grading. Our results indicate that PET can be used to image and evaluate the metabolic activity of human musculoskeletal tumors.