Objective: This review aims to provide a summary of the clinical indications and limitations of PET imaging with different radiotracers, including 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) and other radiopharmaceuticals, in pediatric neuro-oncology, discussing both supratentorial and infratentorial tumors, based on recent literature (from 2010 to present). Methods: A literature search of the PubMed/MEDLINE database was carried out searching for articles on the use of PET in pediatric brain tumors. The search was updated until December 2020 and limited to original studies published in English after 1 January 2010. Results: 18F-FDG PET continues to be successfully employed in different settings in pediatric neuro-oncology, including diagnosis, grading and delineation of the target for stereotactic biopsy, estimation of prognosis, evaluation of recurrence, treatment planning and assessment of treatment response. Nevertheless, non-18F-FDG tracers, especially amino acid analogues seem to show a better performance in each clinical setting. Conclusions: PET imaging adds important information in the diagnostic work-up of pediatric brain tumors. International or national multicentric studies are encouraged in order to collect larger amount of data.
Background: to explore the diagnostic accuracy of 18F-Fluciclovine positron-emission tomography (PET) in prostate cancer (PCa), considering both primary staging prior to radical therapy, biochemical recurrence, and advanced setting. Methods: A systematic web search through Embase and Medline was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Studies performed from 2011 to 2020 were evaluated. The terms used were “PET” or “positron emission tomography” or “positron emission tomography/computed tomography” or “PET/CT” or “positron emission tomography-computed tomography” or “PET-CT” and “Fluciclovine” or “FACBC” and “prostatic neoplasms” or “prostate cancer” or “prostate carcinoma”. Only studies reporting about true positive (TP), true negative (TN), false positive (FP) and false negative (FN) findings of 18F-fluciclovine PET were considered eligible. Results: Fifteen out of 283 studies, and 697 patients, were included in the final analysis. The pooled sensitivity for 18F-Fluciclovine PET/CT for diagnosis of primary PCa was 0.83 (95% CI: 0.80–0.86), the specificity of 0.77 (95% CI: 0.74–0.80). The pooled sensitivity for preoperative LN staging was 0.57 (95% CI: 0.39–0.73) and specificity of 0.99 (95% CI: 0.94–1.00). The pooled sensitivity for the overall detection of recurrence in relapsed patients was 0.68 (95% CI: 0.63–0.73), and specificity of 0.68 (95% CI: 0.60–0.75). Conclusion: This meta-analysis showed promising results in term of sensitivity and specificity for 18F-Fluciclovine PET/CT to stage the primary lesion and in the assessment of nodal metastases, and for the detection of PCa locations in the recurrent setting. However, the limited number of studies and the broad heterogeneity in the selected cohorts and in different investigation protocols are limitation affecting the strength of these results.
Introduction
Fluorine-18 (18F) Fluciclovine (anti-1-amino-3-18F-fluorocyclobutane- 1-carboxylic acid [FACBC]) is a synthetic amino acid labeled with 18F, currently used as PET radiopharmaceutical to investigating prostate cancer, namely in the recurrent setting.
Fluciclovine is transported to cell membranes by amino acid transporters, such as LAT1 and ASCT2. The upregulation of LAT-1 and ASCT2 activities is typical of prostate cancer but is also present in other pathological conditions such as non-prostatic neoplasms (e.g., lung cancer) and in benign inflammatory process (e.g., benign prostatic hyperplasia, chronic prostatitis, high-grade prostatic hyperplasia intraepithelial).
Methods
In this short essay we present a retrospective FACBC PET/CT analysis consisting of a selection of the five most relevant cases of patients referred in our centre to FACBC PET/CT for prostate cancer, with concomitant FACBC uptake in sites atyipical for prostate cancer.
Results
These five selected cases demonstrate FACBC uptake at the level of the pancreatic head, adrenal incidentalomas, pulmonary nodules, mediastinal lymph nodes and neoformative tissue of the rectal wall.
Discussion
Clinical cases selected in this pictorial essay have demonstrated that Fluciclovine is not an exclusive and specific radiotracer for prostate cancer and, therefore, can induce misdiagnosis. In fact, incidental benign and malignant uptake might occur and should be further evaluated with clinical correlation or other imaging.
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