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. 2014 Aug 21;2014:624642. doi: 10.1155/2014/624642

Table 2.

Trials involving hypoxia-specific PET imaging in head and neck cancer over the last 10 years.

Radiotracer Reference Trial and aim Results
18F-MISO Rischin et al. 2006 [16] TROG randomized trial (45 patients)
To determine the association between tumour hypoxia, treatment regimen, and locoregional failure in advanced HNC
18F-MISO-detected hypoxia is associated with high locoregional failure in patients not receiving tirapazamine.
Kikuchi et al. 2011 [17] Clinical study (17 patients)
To evaluate the role of 18F-MISO as a predictor of treatment outcome in HNC
Local control after radiotherapy was significantly lower in patients with high uptake than in those with low tracer uptake. Pretreatment scan with 18F-MISO may predict treatment outcome.

18F-FAZA Souvatzoglou et al. 2007 [18] Phase I trial (11 patients)
Feasibility of 18F-FAZA for hypoxia imaging in HNC patients
Feasible for clinical use and offers adequate image quality for hypoxia assessment.
Postema et al. 2009 [19] Phase I trial (9 HNC patients out of 50 overall cancer patients)
To demonstrate the safety and biodistribution pattern of 18F-FAZA in patients with HNC, lung cancer, gliomas, and lymphomas
Clear uptake of 18F-FAZA was observed in 6 out of 9 HNC patients; good imaging properties; good tumour-to-blood ratio. Promising agent for hypoxia imaging in HNC.

18F-EF3 Mahy et al. 2008 [20] Phase I trial (10 patients)
To assess the pharmacokinetics, biodistribution, and metabolism (324 MBq versus 1,134 MBq)
Uptake and retention in tumour was observed; no difference between the radioactivity groups; no side effects; safe and feasible.

18F-EF5 Komar et al. 2008 [21] Phase I trial (15 patients)
To determine the optimal PET protocol for 18F-EF5 as a hypoxia imaging agent
Initial 18F-EF5 uptake is governed by blood flow; later phase uptake is hypoxia specific (optimal detection time is 3 h after injection); warranting more study.

18F-HX4 Chen et al. 2012 [22] Phase I trial (12 patients)
To evaluate the feasibility of HX4 compared with 18F-MISO
HX4 possibly has higher sensitivity and specificity and shorter injection-acquisition time (1.5 h) than 18F-MISO

Cu-ATSM Minagawa et al. 2011 [23] Phase I/II trial (17 patients)
To evaluate the relationship between 62Cu-ATSM tumour uptake and chemoradiotherapy
62Cu-ATSM SUVmax greatly differed between patients with and without residual disease. 62Cu-ATSM could be a predictor of tumour response to treatment.
Grassi et al. 2014 [24] Preliminary prospective study (11 patients)
To assess the efficacy of pretreatment 64Cu-ATSM as a prognostic factor and its role as a marker of disease progression
64Cu-ATSM showed high sensitivity but low specificity in predicting response to chemoradiotherapy. There were no differences between early and late scans.

HNC: head and neck cancer.