Oncological diagnosis using 11C-choline-positron emission tomography in comparison with 2-deoxy 2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose-positron emission tomography

PURPOSE: To assess and compare the usefulness of C-11-Choline-positron emission tomography (PET) with that of 2-deoxy-2-[ F-18] fluoro-D-glucose (FDG)-PET for the differentiation between benign and malignant in various tumors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We examined 38 consecutive patients with various tumors, including seven patients with brain tumors, two with oral cavity tumor, two with esophageal cancer, six with lung cancer, 11 with bone tumor, nine with soft tissue tumors, and one with myeloma. C-11-Choline-PET and FDG-PET were performed from five minutes and 40 minutes, respectively, after injection of 275-455 MBq tracer. Tracer uptakes were evaluated by the standardized uptake value (SUV) and were analyzed in according to the pathologic data. RESULTS: C-11-Choline uptake in malignancies (3.9 +/- 1.7, n = 24) was significantly higher than that in benign lesions (1.7 +/- 1.2, n = 14) (P < 0.0001). On the other hand, the FDG uptake in malignancies was 4.9 +/- 2.0 (n = 24) and was also significantly larger than that in benign lesions 1.6 +/- 1.3 (n = 14) (P < 0.0001). The C-11-Choline uptake in all the lesions correlated with FDG uptake (r = 0.658, P < 0.02, n = 38). According to the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the area under the ROC curve for C-11-Choline-PET was 0.871, and with no significant difference compared to FDGPET with the area of 0.929. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that C-11-Choline-PET is similar to FDG-PET in differentiation between malignant and benign lesion in various tumors. 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.