A comparison study of (11)C-methionine and (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography scans in evaluation of patients with recurrent brain tumors.

INTRODUCTION: (11)C-methonine ([(11)C]-MET) positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) is a well-established technique for evaluation of tumor for diagnosis and treatment planning in neurooncology. [(11)C]-MET reflects amino acid transport and has been shown to be more sensitive than magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in stereotactic biopsy planning. This study compared fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET-CT and MET PET-CT in the detection of various brain tumors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty-four subjects of brain tumor treated by surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiotherapy were subjected to [(18)F]-FDG, [(11)C]-MET, and MRI scan. The lesion was analyzed semiquantitatively using tumor to normal contralateral ratio. The diagnosis was confirmed by surgery, stereotactic biopsy, clinical follow-up, MRI, or CT scans.

RESULTS: Tumor recurrence was found in 5 out of 22 patients on [F-18] FDG scan while [(11)C]-MET was able to detect recurrence in 18 out of 22 patients in low-grade gliomas. Two of these patients were false positive for the presence of recurrence of tumor and later found to be harboring necrosis. Among oligodendroglioma, medulloblastoma and high-grade glioma out of 42 patients 39 were found to be concordant MET and FDG scans. On semiquantitative analysis, mean T/NT ratio was found to be 2.96 ± 0.94 for lesions positive for recurrence of tumors and 1.18 ± 0.74 for lesions negative for recurrence of tumor on [(11)C]-MET scan. While the ratio for FDG scan on semiquantitative analysis was found to be 2.05 ± 1.04 for lesions positive for recurrence of tumors and 0.52 ± 0.15 for lesions negative for recurrence of tumors.

CONCLUSION: The study highlight that [(11)C]-MET is superior to [(18)F]-FDG PET scans to detect recurrence in low-grade glioma. A cut-off value of target to nontarget value of 1.47 is a useful parameter to distinguish benign from malignant lesion on an [(11)C]-MET Scan. Both [(18)F]-FDG and [(11)C]-MET scans were found to be useful in high-grade astrocytoma, oligodendroglioma, and medulloblastoma.