(18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose uptake and tumor hypoxia: revisit (18)f-fluorodeoxyglucose in oncology application.
This study revisited (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)F-FDG) uptake and its relationship to hypoxia in various tumor models.


METHODS
We generated peritoneal carcinomatosis and subcutaneous xenografts of colorectal cancer HT29, breast cancer MDA-MB-231, and non-small cell lung cancer A549 cell lines in nude mice. The partial oxygen pressure (pO2) of ascites fluid was measured. (18)F-FDG accumulation detected by digital autoradiography was related to tumor hypoxia visualized by pimonidazole binding and glucose transporter-1 (GLUT-1) in frozen tumor sections.


RESULTS
Ascites pO2 was 0.90 ± 0.53 mm Hg. Single cancer cells and clusters suspended in ascites fluid as well as submillimeter serosal tumors stained positive for pimonidazole and GLUT-1 and had high (18)F-FDG uptake. In contrast, (18)F-FDG uptake was significantly lower in normoxic portion (little pimonidazole binding or GLUT-1 expression) of larger serosal tumors or subcutaneous xenografts, which was not statistically different from that in the liver.


CONCLUSIONS
Glucose demand ((18)F-FDG uptake) in severely hypoxic ascites carcinomas and hypoxic portion of larger tumors is significantly higher than in normoxic cancer cells. Warburg effect originally obtained from Ehrlich ascites carcinoma may not apply to normoxic cancer cells. Our findings may benefit the better understanding of (18)F-FDG PET in oncology application.
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA; Department of Medical Physics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: Linucmed@gmail.com.
Xiao-Feng
XF
Li
Laboratory of Molecular Imaging, Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Yang
Y
Du
Department of Pathology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
Yuanyuan
Y
Ma
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA.
Gregory C
GC
Postel
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA.
A Cahid
AC
Civelek