In vivo PET/CT in a human glioblastoma chicken chorioallantoic membrane model: a new tool for oncology and radiotracer development.

Unlabelled: For many years the laboratory mouse has been used as the standard model for in vivo oncology research, particularly in the development of novel PET tracers, but the growth of tumors on chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) provides a more rapid, low cost, and ethically sustainable alternative. For the first time, to our knowledge, we demonstrate the feasibility of in vivo PET and CT imaging in a U87 glioblastoma tumor model on chicken CAM, with the aim of applying this model for screening of novel PET tracers.

Methods: U87 glioblastoma cells were implanted on the CAM at day 11 after fertilization and imaged at day 18.

Production at the Curie level of no-carrier-added 6-18F-fluoro-L-dopa.

Unlabelled: 6-(18)F-fluoro-L-dopa ((18)F-FDOPA) has proven to be a useful radiopharmaceutical for the evaluation of presynaptic dopaminergic function using PET. In comparison to electrophilic synthesis, the no-carrier-added (NCA) nucleophilic method has several advantages. These include much higher available activity and specific activity.