• Author
    Akeive Burrows
  • Discovery PI

    Benjamin Ellingson, PhD

  • Project Co-Author

    Asher Kim

  • Abstract Title

    Exploring whether 18F-FDOPA PET imaging characteristics at a single time point reflect anatomic tumor growth rate kinetics in human gliomas

  • Discovery AOC Petal or Dual Degree Program

    Basic, Clinical, & Translational Research

  • Abstract

    Background: MRI remains the standard imaging modality for glioma assessment but is limited in differentiating active tumor from treatment-related changes and in characterizing infiltrative disease. Amino-acid PET with ¹⁸F-FDOPA can identify metabolically active glioma, but its ability to reflect tumor growth kinetics remains uncertain.

    Objective: To evaluate whether FDOPA PET uptake metrics correlate with MRI-derived glioma growth rates and may serve as a surrogate marker of tumor aggressiveness.

    Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, adults with histologically confirmed glioma who underwent clinically indicated ¹⁸F-FDOPA PET and serial MRI were included. Patients required at least one PET scan and two MRIs suitable for volumetric analysis within 6 months. Tumor volumes were segmented on T2/FLAIR for non-enhancing tumors and post-contrast T1 for enhancing tumors. PET images were co-registered to MRI, and tumor-to-background ratios (TBR) were calculated using lesion SUV normalized to contralateral striatal uptake. MRI-derived tumor growth rates were compared with PET metrics using Pearson and Spearman correlation analyses.

    Results: Twenty-one patients met inclusion criteria for longitudinal volumetric analysis. FDOPA TBRmean demonstrated a modest positive correlation with MRI-derived tumor growth rate (Spearman ρ = 0.34, p = 0.13). This association was stronger than that observed with TBRmax, suggesting that mean lesion uptake may better reflect underlying tumor growth kinetics.

    Conclusion: FDOPA PET uptake demonstrated a positive trend toward association with MRI-derived glioma growth rate, with TBRmean outperforming TBRmax in this preliminary cohort. These findings suggest that FDOPA PET may provide a non-invasive biomarker of tumor aggressiveness, though larger studies are needed to validate its predictive utility.

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