Skip to main content
PMC home page
British Journal of Cancer logoLink to British Journal of Cancer
. 1993 Apr;67(4):787–791. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1993.143

Carbon-11-methionine and PET in evaluation of treatment response of breast cancer.

R Huovinen 1, S Leskinen-Kallio 1, K Någren 1, P Lehikoinen 1, U Ruotsalainen 1, M Teräs 1
PMCID: PMC1968349  PMID: 8471437

Abstract

Uptake of L-methyl-11C-methionine (11C-methionine) in breast cancer metastases was studied with positron emission tomography (PET). Eight patients with soft tissue metastases were studied twice: before the onset of chemotherapy (4), hormonal therapy (3) or radiotherapy (1) and 3-14 weeks later. The radioactivity concentration of the low molecular weight fraction of venous plasma samples separated by fast gel filtration was used as input function. The input corrected uptake rate of 11C-methionine (Ki) in breast cancer metastases before the treatment ranged between 0.035 and 0.186 1 min-1 and the standardised uptake value (SUV) between 2.0 and 11.4. The uptake of 11C-methionine into the metastases decreased when clinical objective stability or regression of the metastases was later obtained and increased in cases where progressive disease was seen during treatment. We conclude that metabolic changes in the amino acid metabolism detected by PET precede the clinical response, and may be of clinical value in predicting the treatment response.

Full text

PDF
790

Images in this article

789Figure 1
on p.789

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Abe Y., Matsuzawa T., Fujiwara T., Itoh M., Fukuda H., Yamaguchi K., Kubota K., Hatazawa J., Tada M., Ido T. Clinical assessment of therapeutic effects on cancer using 18F-2-fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose and positron emission tomography: preliminary study of lung cancer. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 1990 Oct;19(4):1005–1010. doi: 10.1016/0360-3016(90)90026-g. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bergström M., Muhr C., Lundberg P. O., Bergström K., Gee A. D., Fasth K. J., Långström B. Rapid decrease in amino acid metabolism in prolactin-secreting pituitary adenomas after bromocriptine treatment: a PET study. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 1987 Sep-Oct;11(5):815–819. doi: 10.1097/00004728-198709000-00014. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Derlon J. M., Bourdet C., Bustany P., Chatel M., Theron J., Darcel F., Syrota A. [11C]L-methionine uptake in gliomas. Neurosurgery. 1989 Nov;25(5):720–728. doi: 10.1097/00006123-198911000-00006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Fujiwara T., Matsuzawa T., Kubota K., Abe Y., Itoh M., Fukuda H., Hatazawa J., Yoshioka S., Yamaguchi K., Ito K. Relationship between histologic type of primary lung cancer and carbon-11-L-methionine uptake with positron emission tomography. J Nucl Med. 1989 Jan;30(1):33–37. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Hatazawa J., Ishiwata K., Itoh M., Kameyama M., Kubota K., Ido T., Matsuzawa T., Yoshimoto T., Watanuki S., Seo S. Quantitative evaluation of L-[methyl-C-11] methionine uptake in tumor using positron emission tomography. J Nucl Med. 1989 Nov;30(11):1809–1813. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hoffman R. M. Unbalanced transmethylation and the perturbation of the differentiated state leading to cancer. Bioessays. 1990 Apr;12(4):163–166. doi: 10.1002/bies.950120404. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Kubota K., Matsuzawa T., Ito M., Ito K., Fujiwara T., Abe Y., Yoshioka S., Fukuda H., Hatazawa J., Iwata R. Lung tumor imaging by positron emission tomography using C-11 L-methionine. J Nucl Med. 1985 Jan;26(1):37–42. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Kubota K., Matsuzawa T., Takahashi T., Fujiwara T., Kinomura S., Ido T., Sato T., Kubota R., Tada M., Ishiwata K. Rapid and sensitive response of carbon-11-L-methionine tumor uptake to irradiation. J Nucl Med. 1989 Dec;30(12):2012–2016. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Leskinen-Kallio S., Huovinen R., Någren K., Lehikoinen P., Ruotsalainen U., Teräs M., Joensuu H. [11C]methionine quantitation in cancer PET studies. J Comput Assist Tomogr. 1992 May-Jun;16(3):468–474. doi: 10.1097/00004728-199205000-00023. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Leskinen-Kallio S., Någren K., Lehikoinen P., Ruotsalainen U., Joensuu H. Uptake of 11C-methionine in breast cancer studied by PET. An association with the size of S-phase fraction. Br J Cancer. 1991 Dec;64(6):1121–1124. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1991.475. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Leskinen-Kallio S., Ruotsalainen U., Någren K., Teräs M., Joensuu H. Uptake of carbon-11-methionine and fluorodeoxyglucose in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a PET study. J Nucl Med. 1991 Jun;32(6):1211–1218. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Långström B., Antoni G., Gullberg P., Halldin C., Malmborg P., Någren K., Rimland A., Svärd H. Synthesis of L- and D-[methyl-11C]methionine. J Nucl Med. 1987 Jun;28(6):1037–1040. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Miller A. B., Hoogstraten B., Staquet M., Winkler A. Reporting results of cancer treatment. Cancer. 1981 Jan 1;47(1):207–214. doi: 10.1002/1097-0142(19810101)47:1<207::aid-cncr2820470134>3.0.co;2-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Minn H., Paul R., Ahonen A. Evaluation of treatment response to radiotherapy in head and neck cancer with fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose. J Nucl Med. 1988 Sep;29(9):1521–1525. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Minn H., Soini I. [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose scintigraphy in diagnosis and follow up of treatment in advanced breast cancer. Eur J Nucl Med. 1989;15(2):61–66. doi: 10.1007/BF00702620. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Nicholson S., Sainsbury J. R., Halcrow P., Chambers P., Farndon J. R., Harris A. L. Expression of epidermal growth factor receptors associated with lack of response to endocrine therapy in recurrent breast cancer. Lancet. 1989 Jan 28;1(8631):182–185. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(89)91202-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Oldendorf W. H. Letter: Expression of tissue isotope distribution. J Nucl Med. 1974 Aug;15(8):725–726. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Patlak C. S., Blasberg R. G., Fenstermacher J. D. Graphical evaluation of blood-to-brain transfer constants from multiple-time uptake data. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 1983 Mar;3(1):1–7. doi: 10.1038/jcbfm.1983.1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Strauss L. G., Conti P. S. The applications of PET in clinical oncology. J Nucl Med. 1991 Apr;32(4):623–650. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Woodard H. Q., Bigler R. E., Freed B. Letter: Expression of tissue isotope distribution. J Nucl Med. 1975 Oct;16(10):958–959. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from British Journal of Cancer are provided here courtesy of Cancer Research UK

RESOURCES