RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Metabolic Evaluation of Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer Patient–Derived Xenograft Models Using 18F-FDG PET: A Potential Tool for Early Therapy Response JF Journal of Nuclear Medicine JO J Nucl Med FD Society of Nuclear Medicine SP 42 OP 47 DO 10.2967/jnumed.116.176404 VO 58 IS 1 A1 Silvia Valtorta A1 Massimo Moro A1 Giovanna Prisinzano A1 Giulia Bertolini A1 Monica Tortoreto A1 Isabella Raccagni A1 Ugo Pastorino A1 Luca Roz A1 Gabriella Sozzi A1 Rosa Maria Moresco YR 2017 UL http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/58/1/42.abstract 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.