title: Measurement of [methyl-carbon-11]thymidine and its metabolites in head and neck tumors.
abstract: We made routine measurements of [methyl-11C]thymidine and its metabolites in human venous blood in 13 patients with head and neck tumors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients underwent PET imaging 10-30 min after bolus injection. Venous samples were collected at various intervals and water-soluble 11C-metabolites were analyzed with semipreparative HPLC on a C18 column with isotonic phosphate solution as an eluant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After rapid clearance, total radioactivity remained constant at a level of about 1.2% of the initial injected activity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this group of patients with head and neck cancers, our results show that kinetic differences in various 11C-metabolites are small.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, University of Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Goethals
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Eijkeren
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lodewyck
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dams
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D013936:Thymidine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000097:blood; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
chemical_list: C012439:methylthymidine; D013936:Thymidine