title: Evaluation of positron emission tomographic tracers for imaging of papillomavirus-induced tumors in rabbits.
abstract: In this study, simultaneous positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance (MR) imaging was employed to evaluate the feasibility of the PET tracers 2-deoxy-2-18F-fluoro-d-glucose (18F-FDG), 11C-choline, and 18F-fluorothymidine (18F-FLT) to detect papillomavirus-induced tumors in an established rabbit model system. The combined PET/MR allowed the analysis of tracer uptake of the tumors using the morphologic information acquired by MR. New Zealand White rabbits were infected with cottontail rabbit papillomavirus genomes and were imaged for up to 10 months with a simultaneous PET/MR system during the course of infection. The uptake characteristics of the PET tracers 11C-choline and 18F-FLT of tumors and reference tissues were examined relative to the clinical standard, 18F-FDG. Tracer biodistribution of various organs was measured by gamma-counting after the last PET scan and compared to the in vivo PET/MR 18F-FDG uptake. Increased tracer uptake was found 2 months postinfection in primary tumors with 18F-FDG and 11C-choline, whereas 18F-FLT failed to detect the tumors at all measured time points. Our data show that the PET tracer 18F-FDG is superior for imaging papillomavirus-induced tumors in rabbits compared to 11C-choline and 18F-FLT. However, 11C-choline imaging, which has previously been applied to detect various tumor entities in patients, appears to be an alternative to 18F-FDG.
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Probst
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wiehr
authors.forename: Frederic
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mantlik
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kolb
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Münch
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Delcuratolo
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Stubenrauch
authors.forename: Bernd J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Pichler
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Iftner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002794:Choline; D012777:Cottontail rabbit papillomavirus / Q000235:genetics*; D015224:Dideoxynucleosides; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006801:Humans; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D011817:Rabbits; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D015224:Dideoxynucleosides; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D002794:Choline; C002854:alovudine