Kinetic filtering of [(18)F]Fluorothymidine in positron emission tomography studies.
[(18)F]Fluorothymidine (FLT) is a cell proliferation marker that undergoes predominantly hepatic metabolism and therefore shows a high level of accumulation in the liver, as well as in rapidly proliferating tumours. Furthermore, the tracer's uptake is substantial in other organs including the heart. We present a nonlinear kinetic filtering technique which enhances the visualization of tumours imaged with FLT positron emission tomography (FLT-PET). A classification algorithm to isolate cancerous tissue from healthy organs was developed and validated using 29 scan data from patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer. A large reduction in signal from the liver and heart of 80% was observed following application of the kinetic filter, whilst the majority of signal from both primary tumours and metastases was retained. A scan acquisition time of 60 min has been shown to be sufficient to obtain the necessary kinetic data. The algorithm extends utility of FLT-PET imaging in oncology research.
Gray
Katherine R
KR
MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital, London, UK.
Contractor
Kaiyumars B
KB
Kenny
Laura M
LM
Al-Nahhas
Adil
A
Shousha
Sami
S
Stebbing
Justin
J
Wasan
Harpreet S
HS
Coombes
R Charles
RC
Aboagye
Eric O
EO
Turkheimer
Federico E
FE
Rosso
Lula
L
D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D001940:Breast / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D003287:Contrast Media; D015224:Dideoxynucleosides / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D016014:Linear Models; D008099:Liver / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000556:secondary; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted
D003287:Contrast Media; D015224:Dideoxynucleosides; C002854:alovudine