The use of 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters in predicting overall survival in patients undergoing restaging for malignant melanoma

Malignant melanoma is one of the more aggressive cancers in the skin, with an increasing incidence every year. Melanoma has a better prognosis if diagnosed early and survival tends to decrease once the disease has metastasized. Positron emission tomography (PET) with 2-[18F]fluoro2-deoxy-D-glucose (18F-FDG) has been used extensively over the past two decades in staging and assessing responses to therapy in patients with melanoma. Metabolic PET parameters have been demonstrated to be independent prognostic factors for progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in different malignancies, melanoma included. In our study, we evaluated the metabolic parameters of 18F-FDG PET/CT (flourodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography) in predicting the overall survival in patients with malignant melanoma who presented for restaging. Metabolic PET parameters (maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG)) of the primary tumor, as well as whole-body MTV and TLG of the metastatic disease, were measured. Survival curves for OS were constructed and mortality rates were determined using the different PET variables. Forty-nine patients who presented for a PET/CT restaging in melanoma were included in this study. We found that non-survivors had significantly higher median MTV (11.86 cm3 vs. 5.68 cm3 ; p-value = 0.022), TLG (3125 vs. 14; p-value = 0.0357), whole-body MTV (53.9 cm3 vs. 14.4 cm3 ; p-value = 0.0076) and whole-body TLG (963.4 vs. 114.6; p-value = 0.0056). This demonstrated that high MTV and TLG values of the primary tumor and whole-body TLG as quantified by 18F-FDG PET/CT were prognostic factors for overall survival. The findings may potentially guide clinicians in decision making and identifying patients with a poorer prognosis.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/diagnosticsdm2022Nuclear Medicin

Single photon emission tomography in the diagnostic assessment of cardiac and vascular infectious diseases

Please read abstract in the articlehttp://www.benthamscience.comcrp/index.htmhj2022Nuclear Medicin

A prospective intra-individual comparison of [68Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT, [68Ga]Ga-NODAGAZOL PET/CT, and [99mTc]Tc-MDP bone scintigraphy for radionuclide imaging of prostate cancer skeletal metastases

Please read abstract in the article.http://link.springer.com/journal/259hj2022Nuclear Medicin

FDG PET/CT for evaluating systemic arterial inflammation induced by anthracycline-based chemotherapy of Hodgkin lymphoma : a retrospective cohort study

To evaluate arterial fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake as a marker of arterial inflammation in multiple vascular beds in patients treated with anthracycline-based chemotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). We used maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) and target-to-background ratio (TBR) to quantify arterial FDG uptake in the carotid artery, ascending aorta, abdominal aorta, and femoral artery obtained on positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging performed at baseline before chemotherapy and after completion of chemotherapy in patients with HL treated with an anthracycline-containing regimen. We compared the SUVmax and TBR obtained at baseline with that obtained postchemotherapy for each arterial bed to evaluate the effect of anthracycline-based chemotherapy. We evaluated the effect of cardiovascular risk factors such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, smoking, hypertension, and diabetes on the changes in SUVmax and TBR seen in the different arterial beds after anthracycline-based chemotherapy. Fifty-two patients were included with a mean age of 34.56±10.19 years. There were 33 males, and 18 patients were HIV-infected. The mean interval between completion of chemotherapy and follow-up flourine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG PET/CT) scan was 65 weeks. We found no significant difference in arterial FDG uptake measured by SUVmax and TBR in all arterial beds between the pre- and post-chemotherapy FDG PET/CT. There was no significant impact of HIV infection, smoking, and hypertension on the changes in arterial FDG uptake following treatment with anthracyclinebased chemotherapy. In patients with HL who were treated with anthracycline-based chemotherapy, we found no significant increase in arterial inflammation measured by FDG PET/CT after an average follow-up period of about 65 weeks since completion of chemotherapy.https://journals.lww.com/md-journal/pages/default.aspxam2021Nuclear Medicin

Principal component analysis applied to radiomics data : added value for separating benign from malignant solitary pulmonary nodules

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT: Data may be obtained via the last author following a reasonable request and following approval from our Ethics Committee.Please read abstract in article.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jcmNuclear MedicineSDG-03:Good heatlh and well-bein

mCRPC patients receiving 225Ac-PSMA-617 therapy in the post-androgen deprivation therapy setting : response to treatment and survival analysis

Please read abstract in the article.http://jnm.snmjournals.orghj2023Nuclear Medicin

[68Ga]Ga-NODAGAZOL uptake in atherosclerotic plaques correlates with the cardiovascular risk profile of patients

Please read abstract in the article.http://link.springer.com/journal/12149hj2023CardiologyNuclear Medicin

Correlation between CT features of active tuberculosis and residual metabolic activity on end-of-treatment FDG PET/CT in patients treated for pulmonary tuberculosis

Patients who complete a standard course of anti-tuberculous treatment (ATT) for pulmonary tuberculosis and are declared cured according to the current standard of care commonly have residual metabolic activity (RMA) in their lungs on fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG PER/CT) imaging. RMA seen in this setting has been shown to be associated with relapse of tuberculosis. The routine clinical use of FDG PET/CT imaging for treatment response assessment in tuberculosis is hindered by cost and availability. CT is a more readily available imaging modality. We sought to determine the association between CT features suggestive of active tuberculosis and RMA on FDG PET/CT obtained in patients who completed a standard course of ATT for pulmonary tuberculosis. We prospectively recruited patients who completed a standard course of ATT and declared cured based on negative sputum culture. All patients had FDG PET/CT within 2 weeks of completing ATT. We determined the presence of RMA on FDG PET images. Among the various lung changes seen on CT, we considered the presence of lung nodule, consolidation, micronodules in tree-in-bud pattern, FDG-avid chest nodes, and pleural effusion as suggestive of active tuberculosis. We determine the association between the presence of RMA on FDG PET and the CT features of active tuberculosis. We include 75 patients with a mean age of 36.09 ± 10.49 years. Forty-one patients (54.67%) had RMA on their FDG PET/CT while 34 patients (45.33%) achieved complete metabolic response to ATT. There was a significant association between four of the five CT features of active disease, p < 0.05 in all cases. Pleural effusion (seen in two patients) was the only CT feature of active disease without a significant association with the presence of RMA. This suggests that CT may be used in lieu of FDG PET/CT for treatment response assessment of pulmonary tuberculosis.CRDF Global for the project titled: The Clinical Research Unit (CRU) for the Advancement of Tuberculosis (TB) Biomarker-Targeted Interventions.http://frontiersin.org/Medicinedm2022Medical MicrobiologyNuclear Medicin

[68ga]ga-pentixafor for pet imaging of vascular expression of cxcr-4 as a marker of arterial inflammation in hiv-infected patients : a comparison with18f[fdg] pet imaging

People living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV) have excess risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Arterial inflammation is the hallmark of atherogenesis and its complications. In this study we aimed to perform a head-to-head comparison of fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography ([18F]FDG PET/CT) and Gallium-68 pentixafor positron emission tomography/computed tomography [68Ga]Ga-pentixafor PET/CT for quantification of arterial inflammation in PLHIV. We prospectively recruited human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients to undergo [18F]FDG PET/CT and [68Ga]Ga-pentixafor PET/CT within two weeks of each other. We quantified the levels of arterial tracer uptake on both scans using maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) and target–background ratio. We used Bland and Altman plots to measure the level of agreement between tracer quantification parameters obtained on both scans. A total of 12 patients were included with a mean age of 44.67 ± 7.62 years. The mean duration of HIV infection and mean CD+ T-cell count of the study population were 71.08 ± 37 months and 522.17 ± 260.33 cells/µL, respectively. We found a high level of agreement in the quantification variables obtained using [18F]FDG PET and [68Ga]Ga-pentixafor PET. There is a good level of agreement in the arterial tracer quantification variables obtained using [18F]FDG PET/CT and [68Ga]Ga-pentixafor PET/CT in PLHIV. This suggests that [68Ga]Ga-pentixafor may be applied in the place of [18F]FDG PET/CT for the quantification of arterial inflammation.http://www.mdpi.com/journal/biomoleculespm2021Nuclear Medicin

225Ac-PSMA-617 radioligand therapy of de novo metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate carcinoma (mHSPC): preliminary clinical findings

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Theragnostic.AVAILABILITY OF DATA AND MATERIAL : All data collected during the conduct of this study are included in this report.PURPOSE : 225Ac-PSMA-617 has demonstrated good anti-tumor effect as a treatment option for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) patients. No study has previously assessed treatment outcome and survival following 225Ac- PSMA-617 treatment of de novo metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate carcinoma (mHSPC) patients. Based on the potential side effects that are known and explained to the patients by the oncologist, some of the patients refused the standard treatment and are seeking alternative therapies. Thus, we report our preliminary findings in a retrospective series of 21 mHSPC patients that refused standard treatment options and were treated with 225Ac-PSMA-617. METHODS : We retrospectively reviewed patients with histologically confirmed de novo treatment-naïve bone ± visceral mHSPC that were treated with 225Ac-PSMA-617 radioligand therapy (RLT). Inclusion criteria included an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 to 2, treatment-naive bone ± visceral mHSPC, and patients refusal for ADT ± docetaxel, abiraterone acetate, or enzalutamide. We evaluated the response to treatment using prostate-specific antigen (PSA) response and the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) as well as the toxicities. RESULTS : Twenty-one mHSPC patients were included in this preliminary work. Following treatment, twenty patients (95%) had any decline in PSA and eighteen patients (86%) presented with a PSA decline of ≥ 50% including 4 patients in whom PSA became undetectable. A lower percentage decrease in PSA following treatment was associated with increased mortality and shorter progression-free survival. Overall, administration of 225Ac-PSMA-617 was well tolerated. The commonest toxicity seen was grade I/II dry mouth observed in 94% of patients. CONCLUSIONS : Given these favorable results, randomized prospective multicenter trials assessing the clinical value of 225Ac-PSMA-617 as a therapeutic agent for mHSPC administered either as monotherapy or administered concomitant with ADT are of interest.Open access funding provided by University of Pretoria.https://www.springer.com/journal/259am2024Nuclear MedicineSDG-03:Good heatlh and well-bein