title: Initial evaluation of 18F-fluorothymidine (FLT) PET/CT scanning for primary pancreatic cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of (18)F-fluorothymidine (FLT) PET/CT for imaging pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a pilot study of five patients (four males, one female) with newly diagnosed and previously untreated pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Patients underwent FLT PET/CT, (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT, and contrast-enhanced CT scanning before treatment. The presence of cancer was confirmed by histopathological analysis at the time of scanning in all five patients. The degree of FLT and FDG uptake at the primary tumor site was assessed using visual interpretation and semi-quantitative SUV analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The primary tumor size ranged from 2.5 x 2.8 cm to 3.5 x 7.0 cm. The SUV of FLT uptake within the primary tumor ranged from 2.1 to 3.1. Using visual interpretation, the primary cancer could be detected from background activity in two of five patients (40%) on FLT PET/CT. By comparison, FDG uptake was higher in each patient with a SUV range of 3.4 to 10.8, and the primary cancer could be detected from background in all five patients (100%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this pilot study of five patients with primary pancreatic adenocarcinoma, FLT PET/CT scanning showed poor lesion detectability and relatively low levels of radiotracer uptake in the primary tumor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology and Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Stanford University Medical Center, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. aquon@stanford.edu
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Quon
authors.forename: S T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chin
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kamaya
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Dick
authors.forename: B W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Loo
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Gambhir
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Koong
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015224:Dideoxynucleosides; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013382:Subtraction Technique; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D015224:Dideoxynucleosides; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; C002854:alovudine