Clinical value of fluorine-18α-methyltyrosine PET in patients with gliomas: comparison with fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET

BACKGROUND We investigated the relationship between metabolic activity and histological features of gliomas using fluorine-18α-methyltyrosine (18F-FAMT) positron emission tomography (PET) compared with fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) PET in 38 consecutive glioma patients. The tumor to normal brain ratios (T/N ratios) were calculated, and the relationships between T/N ratio and World Health Organization tumor grade or MIB-1 labeling index were evaluated. The diagnostic values of T/N ratios were assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses to differentiate between high-grade gliomas (HGGs) and low-grade gliomas (LGGs). RESULTS Median T/N ratio of 18F-FAMT PET was 2.85, 4.65, and 4.09 for grade II, III, and IV gliomas, respectively, with significant differences between HGGs and LGGs (p = 0.006). Both T/N ratio (p = 0.016) and maximum standardized uptake value (p = 0.033) of 18F-FDG PET showed significant differences between HGGs and LGGs. ROC analysis yielded an optimal cut-off of 3.37 for the T/N ratio of 18F-FAMT PET to differentiate between HGGs and LGGs (sensitivity 81%, specificity 67%, accuracy 76%, area under the ROC curve 0.776). Positive predictive value was 84%, and negative predictive value was 62%. T/N ratio of 18F-FAMT PET was not correlated with MIB-1 labeling index in all gliomas, whereas T/N ratio of 18F-FDG PET was positively correlated (r s  = 0.400, p = 0.013). Significant positive correlation was observed between T/N ratios of 18F-FDG and 18F-FAMT (r s  = 0.454, p = 0.004), but median T/N ratio of 18F-FAMT PET was significantly higher than that of 18F-FDG PET in all grades of glioma. CONCLUSIONS The T/N ratio of 18F-FAMT uptake has high positive predictive value for detection of HGGs. 18F-FAMT PET had higher T/N ratio, with better tumor-normal brain contrast, compared to 18F-FDG PET in both LGGs and HGGs. Therefore, 18F-FAMT is a useful radiotracer for the preoperative visualization of gliomas.