Scintigraphy with [18F]2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose of cancer patients

Computerized dynamic gamma camera scintigraphy was performed with [18F]2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose [( 18F]FDG) on 10 patients with different cancers; tumor perfusion was evaluated in four patients with 99mTc-DPD. All tumors were visible in the [18F]FDG scans with tumor-to-tissue image contrast ratios of 1.2-11.7. Tumor perfusion exceeded that of the surrounding normal tissue in three of the four patients studied. Tumor-to-normal tissue [18F]FDG ratios were plotted as a function of the time. Two types of curves emerged: curves showing a linear increase in the ratio and curves showing a constant value for the ratio. These studies show that [18F]FDG can be used for clinical tumor imaging with a gamma camera, and that there appears to be biological differences in tumor uptake of [18F]FDG.