PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Valtorta, Silvia
AU  - Moro, Massimo
AU  - Prisinzano, Giovanna
AU  - Bertolini, Giulia
AU  - Tortoreto, Monica
AU  - Raccagni, Isabella
AU  - Pastorino, Ugo
AU  - Roz, Luca
AU  - Sozzi, Gabriella
AU  - Moresco, Rosa Maria
TI  - Metabolic Evaluation of Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer Patient–Derived Xenograft Models Using <sup>18</sup>F-FDG PET: A Potential Tool for Early Therapy Response
AID  - 10.2967/jnumed.116.176404
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine
PG  - 42--47
VI  - 58
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/58/1/42.short
4100  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/58/1/42.full
SO  - J Nucl Med2017 Jan 01; 58
AB  - Lung cancer heterogeneity makes response to therapy extremely hard to predict. Patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) are a reliable preclinical model that closely recapitulates the main characteristics of the parental tumors and may represent a useful asset for testing new therapies. Here, using PET imaging, we investigated whether lung cancer PDXs reproduce the metabolic characteristics of the corresponding parental tumors. Methods: We performed longitudinal 18F-FDG PET studies on 9 different PDX groups obtained by implanting primary-cancer fragments harvested from patients into mice. The SUVmax of each PDX was calculated and compared with the SUVmax of the corresponding parental tumor. Results: Tumor growth rate and uptake varied among the different PDXs and confirmed the preservation of individual characteristics. The intragroup reproducibility of PET measurements was good. Furthermore, PDXs from tumors with a higher metabolic rate displayed a rank order of uptake similar to that of the parental tumors. Conclusion: PDXs reproduced the glucose metabolism of the parental tumors and therefore represent a promising preclinical model for the early assessment of therapy efficacy.