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Quantitative volumetric analysis of gliomas with sequential MRI and 11C-methionine PET assessment: patterns of integration in therapy planning

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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of the study was to evaluate the volumetric integration patterns of standard MRI and 11C-methionine positron emission tomography (PET) images in the surgery planning of gliomas and their relationship to the histological grade.

Methods

We studied 23 patients with suspected or previously treated glioma who underwent preoperative 11C-methionine PET because MRI was imprecise in defining the surgical target contour. Images were transferred to the treatment planning system, coregistered and fused (BrainLAB). Tumour delineation was performed by 11C-methionine PET thresholding (vPET) and manual segmentation over MRI (vMRI). A 3-D volumetric study was conducted to evaluate the contribution of each modality to tumour target volume. All cases were surgically treated and histological classification was performed according to WHO grades. Additionally, several biopsy samples were taken according to the results derived either from PET or from MRI and analysed separately.

Results

Fifteen patients had high-grade tumours [ten glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and five anaplastic), whereas eight patients had low-grade tumours. Biopsies from areas with high 11C-methionine uptake without correspondence in MRI showed tumour proliferation, including infiltrative zones, distinguishing them from dysplasia and radionecrosis. Two main PET/MRI integration patterns emerged after analysis of volumetric data: pattern vMRI-in-vPET (11/23) and pattern vPET-in-vMRI (9/23). Besides, a possible third pattern with differences in both directions (vMRI-diff-vPET) could also be observed (3/23). There was a statistically significant association between the tumour classification and integration patterns described above (p < 0.001, κ = 0.72). GBM was associated with pattern vMRI-in-vPET (9/10), low-grade with pattern vPET-in-vMRI (7/8) and anaplastic with pattern vMRI-diff-vPET (3/5).

Conclusion

The metabolically active tumour volume observed in 11C-methionine PET differs from the volume of MRI by showing areas of infiltrative tumour and distinguishing from non-tumour lesions. Differences in 11C-methionine PET/MRI integration patterns can be assigned to tumour grades according to the WHO classification. This finding may improve tumour delineation and therapy planning for gliomas.

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Acknowledgement

This work was partially supported by the Research Foundation of the University of Navarra (PIUNA 2010-04) and the Convocatoria de infraestructuras del Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias, ISCIII, MSC (IF 08/360)

Conflicts of interest

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Clinica Universidad de Navarra, Avenida Pio XII, 36, 31008, Pamplona, Spain

    Javier Arbizu, J. M. Marti-Climent, E. Prieto, G. Quincoces, C. Vigil, I. Peñuelas & J. A. Richter

  2. Department of Neurosurgery, Clinica Universidad de Navarra, Avenida Pio XII, 36, 31008, Pamplona, Spain

    S. Tejada & R. Diez-Valle

  3. Department of Pathology, Clinica Universidad de Navarra, Avenida Pio XII, 36, 31008, Pamplona, Spain

    M. A. Idoate

  4. Department of Radiology, Clinica Universidad de Navarra, Avenida Pio XII, 36, 31008, Pamplona, Spain

    J. L. Zubieta

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  1. Javier Arbizu
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Correspondence to Javier Arbizu.

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Arbizu, J., Tejada, S., Marti-Climent, J.M. et al. Quantitative volumetric analysis of gliomas with sequential MRI and 11C-methionine PET assessment: patterns of integration in therapy planning. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 39, 771–781 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-011-2049-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-011-2049-9

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