PET imaging of medullary thyroid carcinoma in MEN2A transgenic mice using 6-[F]F--DOPA
Pestourie, C..., Thézé, B..., Kuhnast, B... |
Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging |
vol. 37,
58 -
66,
2010
Abstract
Purpose:
6-[18F]Fluoro-3,4-dihydroxy-l-phenylalanine (6-[18F]F-l-DOPA) is increasingly used for PET imaging of neuroendocrine tumours. In this study, we investigated the use of 6-[18F]F-l-DOPA to detect and to monitor the progression of medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) in a genetically engineered mouse model of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2A (MEN2A).
Methods:
Dynamic [18F]FDG and 6-[18F]F-l-DOPA small animal PET scans were acquired during 60 or 90min in 8- to 20-month-old MEN2A transgenic mice. The kinetics of 6-[18F]F-l-DOPA, standardized uptake values (SUV) at 60min and tumour volumes were recorded. The detection of MTCs using PET was confirmed by autopsy and histological analysis.
Results:
6-[18F]F-l-DOPA performs better than [18F]FDG for MTC detection in this transgenic mouse model. Uptake kinetics of 6-[18F]F-l-DOPA in MTCs are very different between mice but, in all cases, high contrast could be observed. Furthermore, 6-[18F]F-l-DOPA can detect tumours with sizes (1.8mm3) that are near the resolution limit of PET, whereas they were undetectable by autopsy at the macroscopic level.
Conclusion:
6-[18F]F-l-DOPA PET imaging can monitor the progression of MTCs in a genetically engineered mouse model (Fig 1).
 | Figure 1: Comparison of 6-[18F]F-l-DOPA vs [18F]FDG MTC labelling in MEN2A transgenic mice. a For each mouse, the left panel shows 6-[18F]F-l-DOPA labelling and the right panel shows [18F]FDG labelling. Top to bottom sagittal, coronal and transaxial section of the mouse, with red arrows indicating the labelled MTC and white arrows indicating the [18F]FDG unspecific labelling in the neck. The transaxial section is centred on the thyroid, which appears at the bottom of the images for the two other sections. The images represent the sum of the frame acquired during 1.5h after i.v. injection of the radiotracer. b–e Whole section of thyroid gland in RET-MEN2A transgenic mice after haematoxylin and eosin staining. b–d correspond to the thyroid of each of the three mice presented in a. b corresponds to mouse 1 and is oriented as the coronal PET section, c to mouse 2 and is oriented as the coronal PET section and d to mouse 3 and is oriented as the transaxial PET section. F follicles, P parathyroid gland, T trachea, C carcinoma. Carcinomas are clearly present on these three thyroids. e corresponds to a thyroid of a 17-month-old mouse that was labelled neither by 6-[18F]F-l-DOPA nor by [18F]FDG (data not shown): in that case the thyroid had a normal aspect even by histopathological study. The scale bar represents 1mm. For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to web version of this article. (Reprinted from Pestourie C, Thézé B, Kuhnast B, et al. PET imaging of medullary thyroid carcinoma in MEN2A transgenic mice using 6-[18F]F-l-DOPA. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2010;37:58-66, with kind permission from Springer Science and Business Media.) |
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Meet the Expert:
Matthias Schott, MD, PhD.
Assistant Professor
Deputy Director of the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Rheumatology
University Hospital of Duesseldorf
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