Image-guided cryoablation for the treatment of painful musculoskeletal metastatic disease: a single-center experience.

Purpose: The role of image-guided thermal ablation techniques for the nonoperative local management of painful osseous metastatic disease has expanded during recent years, and several advantages of cryoablation in this setting have emerged. The purpose of this study is to retrospectively evaluate and report a single-center experience of CT-guided percutaneous cryoablation in the setting of painful musculoskeletal metastatic disease.

Methods: This study was approved by the institutional review board and is compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The effect of fasting on PET Imaging of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Unlabelled: The clinical utility of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging for liver cancer applications is not clearly defined either for diagnosis or treatment assessment. Previous clinical studies demonstrated that fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) did not show uptake in some hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) while acetate showed uptake. Pre-imaging fasting is required for clinical PET imaging with FDG.

Incidence of hypercoagulable events after image-guided percutaneous cryoablation of renal tumors: a single-center experience.

Purpose: To identify retrospectively hypercoagulable events that occurred over time in patients who underwent image-guided percutaneous renal cryoablation and compare the incidence with a cohort of patients who underwent surgical partial nephrectomy (PN) during the same time period.

Materials And Methods: An electronic medical record database was queried for patients who underwent percutaneous image-guided renal mass cryoablation or PN between September 2006 and June 2012. Records were examined for thrombotic events during the year following the procedure in each group.

In vitro characterization of uptake mechanism of L-[methyl-(3)H]-methionine in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Purpose: Methionine (Met) could be a useful imaging biomarker for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), as demonstrated by PET imaging with L-[methyl-(11)C]-Met. In HCC cells, protein synthesis mainly contributes to radiopharmaceutical uptake. In contrast, lipid synthesis via the phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) methylation pathway is the major metabolic route of L-[methyl-(11)C]-Met in normal hepatocytes, which contributes to the background contrast observed in PET images.

Murine leukemia virus envelope gp70 is a shared biomarker for the high-sensitivity quantification of murine tumor burden.

The preclinical development of anticancer drugs including immunotherapeutics and targeted agents relies on the ability to detect minimal residual tumor burden as a measure of therapeutic efficacy. Real-time quantitative (qPCR) represents an exquisitely sensitive method to perform such an assessment. However, qPCR-based applications are limited by the availability of a genetic defect associated with each tumor model under investigation.

Metabolism of radiolabeled methionine in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Purpose: Radiolabeled methionine (Met) promises to be useful in the positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, its metabolic routes in HCC have not yet been fully understood. In this study, the metabolic pathway(s) of radiolabeled Met in HCC were investigated.

Imaging early stage osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells.

Stem cells, such as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), contribute to bone fracture repair if they are delivered to the injury site. However, it is difficult to assess the retention and differentiation of these cells after implantation. Current options for non-invasively tracking the transplanted stem cells are limited.

PET imaging of hepatocellular carcinoma with 18F-fluoroethylcholine and 11C-choline.

Purpose: Choline-based radiotracers have been studied for PET imaging of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Using an (18)F-labeled choline analog, instead of the (11)C-labeled native choline, would facilitate its widespread use in the clinic. In this study, PET with (18)F-fluoroethylcholine (FEC) and (11)C-choline (CHOL) were compared using an animal model of HCC.

Imaging lipid synthesis in hepatocellular carcinoma with [methyl-11c]choline: correlation with in vivo metabolic studies.

Unlabelled: PET with [methyl-(11)C]-choline (11C-choline) can be useful for detecting well-differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that is not 18F-FDG-avid. This study was designed to examine the relationship between choline metabolism and choline tracer uptake in HCC for PET with 11C-choline.

Methods: Dynamic PET scans of 11C-choline were acquired using the woodchuck models of HCC.

Transport and metabolism of radiolabeled choline in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Altered choline (Cho) metabolism in cancerous cells can be used as a basis for molecular imaging with PET using radiolabeled Cho. In this study, the metabolism of tracer Cho was investigated in a woodchuck hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cell line (WCH17) and in freshly derived rat hepatocytes. The transporter responsible for [(11)C]-Cho uptake in HCC was also characterized in WCH17 cells.