MRI and amino acid PET detection of whole-brain tumor burden

Authors

Peng Chen, School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States.
Matthew L. Scarpelli, School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States.
Debbie R. Healey, Department of Cancer Systems Imaging, The University of Texas (UT) MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States.
Shwetal Mehta, Ivy Brain Tumor Center, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ, United States.Follow
C Chad Quarles, Department of Cancer Systems Imaging, The University of Texas (UT) MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, United States.

Document Type

Article

Abstract

BACKGROUND: [F]fluciclovine amino acid PET has shown promise for detecting brain tumor regions undetected on conventional anatomic MRI scans. However, it remains unclear which of these modalities provides a better assessment of the whole brain tumor burden. This study quantifies the performance of [F]fluciclovine PET and MRI for detecting the whole brain tumor burden. METHODS: Thirteen rats were orthotopically implanted with fluorescently transduced human glioblastoma cells. Rats underwent MRI (T1- and T2-weighted) and [F]fluciclovine PET. Next brains were excised, optically cleared, and scanned ex vivo with fluorescence imaging. All images were co-registered using a novel landmark-based registration to enable a spatial comparison. The tumor burden identified on the fluorescent images was considered the ground truth for comparison with the imaging. RESULTS: Across all cases, the PET sensitivity for detecting tumor burden (median 0.67) was not significantly different than MRI (combined T1+T2-weighted) sensitivity (median 0.61; p=0.85). However, the combined PET+MRI sensitivity (median 0.86) was significantly higher than MRI alone (41% higher; p=0.004) or PET alone (28% higher; p=0.0002). The specificity of combined PET+MRI (median=0.91) was significantly lower compared with MRI alone (6% lower; p=0.004) or PET alone (2% lower; p=0.002). CONCLUSION: In these glioblastoma xenografts, [F]fluciclovine PET did not provide a significant increase in tumor burden detection relative to conventional anatomic MRI. However, a combined PET and MRI assessment did significantly improve detection sensitivity relative to either modality alone, suggesting potential value in a combined assessment for some tumors.

Keywords

MRI, amino acid PET, brain tumor, glioblastoma, imaging, tissue clearing

Publication Date

1-1-2023

Publication Title

Frontiers in oncology

ISSN

2234-943X

Volume

13

First Page

1248249

PubMed ID

37810983

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.3389/fonc.2023.1248249

Recommended Citation

Chen, Peng; Scarpelli, Matthew L.; Healey, Debbie R.; Mehta, Shwetal; and Quarles, C Chad, "MRI and amino acid PET detection of whole-brain tumor burden" (2023). Translational Neuroscience. 2371.
https://scholar.barrowneuro.org/neurobiology/2371