INVIVO MEASUREMENT OF C-11 THYMIDINE UPTAKE IN NON-HODGKINS LYMPHOMA USING POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY

  • 1 October 1988
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 29  (10) , 1633-1637
Abstract
Carbon-11 thymidine (TdR) uptake using positron emission tomography (PET) has been measured in ten patients with non-Hodgkin''s lymphoma (NHL). The rate of TdR uptake (mean .+-. s.d.) was of 0.009 .+-. 0.006 .mu.mol .cntdot. 100 cc-1 .cntdot. min-1 in low-grade NHL. This rate was 0.063 .+-. 0.049 .mu.mol .cntdot. 100 cc-1 .cntdot. min-1 in intermediate-grade NHL and 0.159 .mu.mol .cntdot. 100 cc-1 .cntdot. min-1 in a patient with high-grade NHL. Lymphoma radioactivity reached plateau at 0.42 .+-. 0.2f2%. 100 cc-1 of the injected dose from 10 min after injection. The highest 11C uptakes wre observed in the kidneys and in the liver (3.30 .+-. 1.30 and 2.10 .+-. 0.05%. 100 cc-1 of the injected dose, respectively). The lymphoma-to-muscle ratio was of 11.8 .+-. 1.7, whereas the lymphoma-to-intestine ratio was of 1.5 .+-. 0.07. Accordingly, the measurement of [11C]TdR uptake in the abdomen may need other imaging methods for adequate interpretation. The results suggest that [11C]TdR uptake using PET might be a method for nonivasively measuring cell proliferation in vivo.