A Pilot Study of 18F-FLT PET/CT in Pediatric Lymphoma

Danny L Costantini; Reza Vali; Susan McQuattie; Jeffrey Chan; Angela Punnett; Shiela Weitzman; Amer Shammas; Martin Charron

doi:10.1155/2016/6045894

A Pilot Study of 18F-FLT PET/CT in Pediatric Lymphoma

Int J Mol Imaging. 2016:2016:6045894. doi: 10.1155/2016/6045894. Epub 2016 May 26.

Authors

Danny L Costantini¹, Reza Vali¹, Susan McQuattie², Jeffrey Chan², Angela Punnett³, Shiela Weitzman³, Amer Shammas¹, Martin Charron¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, 263 McCaul Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, Canada M5T 1W7; Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 1X8.
² Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 1X8.
³ Department of Pediatrics, Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 1X8.

Abstract

We performed an observational pilot study of 18F-FLT PET/CT in pediatric lymphoma. Eight patients with equivocal 18F-FDG PET/CT underwent imaging with 18F-FLT PET/CT. No immediate adverse reactions to 18F-FLT were observed. Compared to 18F-FDG, 18F-FLT uptake was significantly higher in bone marrow and liver (18F-FLT SUV 8.6 ± 0.6 and 5.0 ± 0.3, versus 18F-FDG SUV 1.9 ± 0.1 and 3.4 ± 0.7, resp., p < 0.05). In total, 15 lesions were evaluated with average 18F-FDG and 18F-FLT SUVs of 2.6 ± 0.1 and 2.0 ± 0.4, respectively. Nonspecific uptake in reactive lymph nodes and thymus was observed. Future studies to assess the clinical utility of 18F-FLT PET/CT in pediatric lymphoma are planned.