Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

18F-Fluciclovine (18F-FACBC) PET/CT or PET/MRI in gliomas/glioblastomas

  • Review Article
  • Published:
Annals of Nuclear Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

18F-fluciclovine (18F-FACBC) is a radiotracer already studied for prostate cancer, and its potential role in brain tumors (such as glioma) is not yet well investigated despite promising results. The aim of this review is to evaluate the possible diagnostic role of 18F-FACBC PET/CT or PET/MRI in patients with gliomas and glioblastomas. A comprehensive literature search of the PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Embase, and Cochrane library databases was conducted to find the relevant published articles about the diagnostic performance of FACBC PET/CT or PET/MRI in patients affected by glioma and/or glioblastoma. Seven papers were included in the systematic review. From the analyses of the selected studies, the following main findings were obtained: glioma and glioblastoma are FACBC-avid tumors with a detection rate of about 100%; FACBC PET has high-diagnostic accuracy in defining tumor extent, volumes, and satellite lesions better than MR; compared to methionine, FACBC has similar accuracy but better tumor-to-background contrast; FACBC uptake may help to discriminate between low-grade and high-grade glioma. Radiolabelled fluciclovine (18F-FACBC) imaging seems to be useful in analyzing glioma/glioblastoma. Further studies enrolling a wider population are needed to clarify the real clinical and diagnostic role of 18F-FACBC in this setting and its possible position in the diagnostic flowchart.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Pauleit D, Floeth F, Hamacher K, Riemenschneider MJ, Reifenberger G, Müller HW, et al. O-(2-[18F]fluoroethyl)-l-tyrosine PET combined with MRI improves the diagnostic assessment of cerebral gliomas. Brain. 2005;128:678–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Juhász C, Dwivedi S, Kamson DO, Michelhaugh SK, Mittal S. Comparison of amino acid positron emission tomographic radiotracers for molecular imaging of primary and metastatic brain tumors. Mol Imaging. 2014;13:1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Galldiks N, Law I, Pope WB, Arbizu J, Langen KJ. The use of amino acid PET and conventional MRI for monitoring of brain tumor therapy. Neuroimage Clin. 2016;13:386–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Filss CP, Cicone F, Shah NJ, Shah NJ, Galldikis N, Lamgen KJ. Amino acid PET and MR perfusion imaging in brain tumours. Clin Transl Imaging. 2017;5:209–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Langen KJ, Galldiks N, Hattingen E, Shah NJ. Advances in neuro-oncology imaging. Nat Rev Neurol. 2017;13:279–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Verger A, Filss CP, Lohmann P, Stoffels G, Sabel M, Wittsack HJ, et al. Comparison of (18)F-FET PET and perfusion-weighted MRI for glioma grading: a hybrid PET/MR study. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2017;44:2257–65.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Albert NL, Weller M, Suchorska B, Galldikis N, Soffietti R, Kim MM, et al. Response assessment in neuro-oncology working group and European Association for Neuro-Oncology recommendations for the clinical use of PET imaging in gliomas. Neuro Oncol. 2016;18:1199–208.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Eisele SC, Wen PY, Lee EQ. Assessment of brain tumor response: RANO and its offspring. Curr Treat Options Oncol. 2016;17:35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Jager PL, Vaalburg W, Pruim J, de Vries EG, Langen KJ, Piers DA. Radiolabeled amino acids: basic aspects and clinical applications in oncology. J Nucl Med. 2001;42:432–45.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Laudicella R, Albano D, Alongi P, Argiroffi G, Bauckneht M, Baldari S, et al. 18F-Facbc in prostate cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Cancers (Basel). 2019. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers11091348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Oka S, Hattori R, Kurosaki F, Toyama M, Williams LA, Yu W, et al. A preliminary study of anti-1-amino-3-18F-fluorocyclobutyl-1-carboxylic acid for the detection of prostate cancer. J Nucl Med. 2007;48:46e55.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Shoup TM, Olson J, Hoffman JM, Votaw J, Eshima D, Eshima L, et al. Synthesis and evaluation of [18F]1-amino-3-fluorocyclobutane-1-carboxylic acid to image brain tumors. J Nucl Med. 1999;40:331–8.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Michaud L, Beattie BJ, Akhurst T, Dunphy M, Zanzonico P, Finn R, et al. 18F-Fluciclovine (18F-FACBC) PET imaging of recurrent brain tumors. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2019. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-019-04433-1.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Bogsrud TV, Londalen A, Brandal P, Leske H, Panagopoulos I, Borghammer P, Bach-Gansmo T. 18F-Fluciclovine PET/CT in suspected residual or recurrent high-grade glioma. Clin Nucl Med. 2019;44(8):605–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Karlberg A, Berntsen EM, Johansen H, Skjulsvik AJ, Reinertsen I, Dai HY, et al. 18F-FACBC PET/MRI in diagnostic assessment and neurosurgery of gliomas. Clin Nucl Med. 2019;44(7):550–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Parent EE, Benayoun M, Ibeanu I, Olson JJ, Hadjipanayis CG, Brat DJ, et al. [18F]Fluciclovine PET discrimination between high- and low-grade gliomas. EJNMMI Res. 2018;8(1):67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Tsuyuguchi N, Terakawa Y, Uda T, Nakajo K, Kanemura Y. Diagnosis of brain tumors using amino acid transport PET imaging with 18F-fluciclovine: a comparative study with l-methyl-11C-methionine PET imaging. Asia Ocean J Nucl Med Biol. 2017;5(2):85–94.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Wakabayashi T, Iuchi T, Tsuyuguchi N, Nishikawa R, Arakawa Y, Sasayama T, et al. Diagnostic performance and safety of positron emission tomography using 18F-fluciclovine in patients with clinically suspected high- or low-grade gliomas: a multicenter phase IIb trial. Asia Ocean J Nucl Med Biol. 2017;5(1):10–211.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Kondo A, Ishii H, Aoki S, Suzuki M, Nagasawa H, Kubota K, et al. Phase IIa clinical study of [18F]fluciclovine: efficacy and safety of a new PET tracer for brain tumors. Ann Nucl Med. 2016;30(9):608–18.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Schucht P, Beck J, Seidel K, Raabe A. Extending resection and preserving function: modern concepts of glioma surgery. Swiss Med Wkly. 2015;145:w14082.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Herholz K. Brain tumors: an update on clinical PET research in gliomas. Semin Nucl Med. 2017;47:5–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Bhutia YD, Babu E, Ramachandran S, Ganapathy V. Amino Acid transporters in cancer and their relevance to ‘‘glutamine addiction’’: novel targets for the design of a new class of anticancer drugs. Cancer Res. 2015;75:1782–8.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Nariai T, Tanaka Y, Wakimoto H, Aoyagi M, Tamaki M, Ishiwata K, et al. Usefulness of l-[methyl-11C] methionine-positron emission tomography as a biological monitoring tool in the treatment of glioma. J Neurosurg. 2005;103:498–507.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Akhurst T, Beattie B, Gogiberidze G, Montiel J, Cai S, Lassman A, et al. [18F]FACBC Imaging of recurrent gliomas: a comparison with [11C]methionine and MRI. J Nucl Med. 2006;47(suppl. 1):79.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Ono M, Oka S, Okudaira H, Schuster DM, Goodman MM, Kawai K, et al. Comparative evaluation of transport mechanisms of trans-1-amino-3-[18F]fluorocyclobutanecarboxylic acid and l-[methyl-11C]methionine in human glioma cell lines. Brain Res. 2013;1535:24–37.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nuclear Medicine, University of Brescia and Spedali Civili Brescia, P.le Spedali Civili 1, 25123, Brescia, Italy

    Domenico Albano, Raffaele Giubbini & Francesco Bertagna

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Brescia and ASST Spedali Civili Di Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Davide Tomasini & Marco Bonù

Authors
  1. Domenico Albano
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Davide Tomasini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Marco Bonù
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Raffaele Giubbini
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Francesco Bertagna
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Domenico Albano.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Albano, D., Tomasini, D., Bonù, M. et al. 18F-Fluciclovine (18F-FACBC) PET/CT or PET/MRI in gliomas/glioblastomas. Ann Nucl Med 34, 81–86 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12149-019-01426-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12149-019-01426-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation