Diagnostic performances of [18f]fluorocholine positron emission tomography in brain tumors

AIM: Brain tumors characterization by molecular imaging that allow the depiction of brain lesions metabolic pattern is crucial. Our study aimed: (1) to evaluate the diagnostic performances of [18F]fluoroethylcholine positron emission tomography/computed tomography ([18F]FECH PET/CT), and (2) to correlate PET imaging derived parameters of [18F]FECH to survival in brain tumors. METHODS: from 2009 to 2012, we enrolled 30 patients who underwent [18F]FECH PET/CT. Final diagnosis was established by clinical and radiological follow-up. RESULTS: final diagnosis was consistent with tumor disease in 27/30 cases. In 3/30 cases tumor disease was ruled out. [18F]FECH PET/CT resulted true positive and negative in 21/30 and 9/30 patients, respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of [18F]FECH PET/CT were 78%, 100%, 100%, 33%, and 80%, respectively. Mean and maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmean and SUVmax) resulted statistically correlated to histology (pvalue= 0.0255 and =0.0222, respectively). Using a SUVmax cut-off of 2.0 or 3.2 we distinguished between low- and high-grade gliomas with a good specificity (70% and 80%, respectively). SUVmax and histology resulted correlated to overall survival and disease related survival at multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: our results, worthy of further investigations, show (1) high diagnostic performances of [18F]FECH PET/CT, (2) a correlation between PET imaging derived parameters and survival.