Research Article
Uptake of
18
F-FET and
18
F-FCH in Human Glioblastoma T98G
Cell Line after Irradiation with Photons or Carbon Ions
Francesca Pasi,
1,2
Marco Giovanni Persico,
3,4
Federica Eleonora Buroni,
3
Carlo Aprile,
3,5
Marina Hodolic,
6
Franco Corbella,
1
Rosanna Nano,
2
Angelica Facoetti,
5
and Lorenzo Lodola
3
1
Department of Oncohaematology, Radiotherapy Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Viale Golgi 19, 27100 Pavia, Italy
2
Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Lazzaro Spallanzani”, University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 9, 27100 Pavia, Italy
3
Department of Oncohaematology, Nuclear Medicine Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Viale Golgi 19,
27100 Pavia, Italy
4
Scuola Universitaria Superiore IUSS Pavia, Pavia, Italy
5
National Centre for Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO), Via Campeggi 53, 27100 Pavia, Italy
6
Nuclear Medicine Research Department, IASON GmbH, Graz, Austria
Correspondence should be addressed to Carlo Aprile; c.aprile@smatteo.pv.it
Received 29 July 2016; Revised 10 November 2016; Accepted 26 December 2016; Published 15 January 2017
Academic Editor: Ralf Schirrmacher
Copyright © 2017 Francesca Pasi et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Te diferential diagnosis between recurrence of gliomas or brain metastases and this phenomenon is important in order to choose
the best therapy and predict the prognosis but is still a big problem for physicians. Te new emerging MRI, CT, and PET diagnostic
modalities still lack sufcient accuracy. Radiolabeled choline and amino acids have been reported to show great tumor specifcity.
We studied the uptake kinetics of [
18
F]fuoromethyl-choline (FCH) and O-(2-[
18
F]fuoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (FET) by the T98G
human glioblastoma cells from 20 to 120 min afer irradiation either with photons at 2-10-20 Gy or with carbon ions at 2 Gy (at the
National Centre for Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO), Pavia, Italy). We also evaluated the cell death and morphology changes
induced by radiation treatment. Both FET and FCH are able to trace tumor behavior in terms of higher uptake for increased doses
of radiation treatment, due to the upregulation of cells attempts to repair nonlethal damage. Our data suggest that both FCH and
FET could be useful to analyze the metabolic pathways of glioblastoma cells before and afer radiotherapy. Physicians will have to
consider the diferent kinetics pathways of uptake concerning the two radiopharmaceuticals.
1. Introduction
Te diferential diagnosis between recurrence of gliomas
and brain metastases and the phenomenon of radiation
necrosis plays an important role in both therapeutic and
prognostic settings. Te distinction between tumor recur-
rence and radionecrosis is important in order to choose the
best subsequent therapy and prognosis is guided by the cause
of progression. Necrosis is an important histological feature
of glial tumors. Tumor necrosis is ischemic in nature, due
to an insufcient blood supply [1]. Te diferential diagnosis
is complicated by the fact that late radionecrosis appears at
various times afer treatment, from 6 months up to several
years [2]. Moreover, radionecrosis phenomenon is observable
without the direct involvement of the brain in the feld
of radiation (bystander efect, e.g., head and neck cancer
irradiated with hadrons). Nowadays, despite the enormous
improvement of diagnostic modalities, including the vari-
ous applications of MRI, CT, and PET, the diagnosis and
grading of primary brain tumours lack sufcient accuracy.
Tis is more relevant when recurrence afer therapy, early
neuroinfammation [3], or late radionecrosis is concerned
[4]. Despite the technological advances and new MR inves-
tigable parameters [5], there is a wide area that does not
allow the reasonable accuracy that the clinicians need. Also,
PET radiopharmaceuticals (
11
C-METH,
18
F-FET,
18
F-FCH,
and
18
F-DOPA) have limitations mainly in terms of speci-
fcity, although the dynamic investigation, only possible with
Hindawi
Contrast Media & Molecular Imaging
Volume 2017, Article ID 6491674, 8 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/6491674