title: Fluorodeoxyglucose-based positron emission tomography imaging to monitor drug responses in solid tumors.
abstract: Positron emission tomography (PET) is used to monitor the uptake of the labeled glucose analogue fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG) by solid tumor cells, a process generally believed to reflect viable tumor cell mass. The use of ¹⁸F-FDG exploits the high demand for glucose in tumor cells, and serves to document over time the response of a solid tumor to an inducer of apoptosis. The apoptosis inducer crizotinib is a small-molecule inhibitor of c-Met, a receptor tyrosine kinase that is often dysregulated in human tumors. In this protocol, we describe how to monitor the response of a solid tumor to crizotinib. Human gastric tumor cells (GTL-16 cells) are injected into recipient mice and, on tumor formation, the mice are treated with crizotinib. The tracer ¹⁸F-FDG is then injected into the mice at several time points, and its uptake is monitored using PET. Because ¹⁸F-FDG uptake varies widely among different tumor models, preliminary experiments should be performed with each new model to determine its basal level of ¹⁸F-FDG uptake. Verifying that the basal level of uptake is sufficiently above background levels will assure accurate quantitation. Because ¹⁸F-FDG uptake is not a direct measure of apoptosis, it is advisable to carry out an additional direct method to show the presence of apoptotic cells.
authors.affiliation: Gene Regulation Laboratory, Cancer Therapeutics Program, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne 3002, Victoria, Australia;
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Newbold
authors.affiliation: Gene Regulation Laboratory, Cancer Therapeutics Program, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne 3002, Victoria, Australia;
authors.forename: Ben P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Translational Research Laboratory, Cancer Therapeutics Program, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne 3002, Victoria, Australia; Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, The University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, Victoria, Australia;
authors.forename: Carleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cullinane
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Experimental Oncology and Radiobiology (LEXOR), Center for Experimental Molecular Medicine, Academic Medical Center, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bots
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D000077547:Crizotinib; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011720:Pyrazoles / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011725:Pyridines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000188:drug therapy*; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D011720:Pyrazoles; D011725:Pyridines; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D000077547:Crizotinib