Poster Presentation Advances in Neuroblastoma Research Congress 2016

Feasibility of applying F18-DOPA hybrid MR-PET to follow-up of neuroblastoma patients (#268)

Meng Yao Lu 1 , Justin Cheng-Ta Yang 2 , Steven Shinn-Forng Peng 2 , Wen-Ming Hsu 3
  1. Department of Pediatrics, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  2. Department of Medical Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  3. Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

Patients with neuroblastoma have to receive regular follow-up examinations including F18-DOPA PET and MR imaging to monitor recurrence of tumors. The conventional CT-PET is about twice the radiation dosage of CT. It is reasonable to replace CT-PET by MR-PET with decrease of ionizing radiation and let patients receive MR and PET examinations simultaneously. F18-DOPA is manufactured by NTUH and already on the market. Ten cooperative neuroblastoma patients were recruited to receive F18-DOPA MR-PET examinations immediately after regular CT-PET examinations without use of additional isotopes. The residual proton density from F18, contrast-enhanced MR images were collected and correlated with the regression or progression in the follow-up images of neuroblastoma. F18-DOPA MR-PET detected 41 neuroblastoma lesions but 2 of the bone marrow lesions were not shown on F18-DOPA PET-CT. No additional lesions were only detected by F18-DOPA PET-CT images. The SUV contrast ratios of 39 neuroblastoma lesions were not significantly different between F18-DOPA MR-PET and F18-DOPA PET-CT images. The results of the study will be applied to evaluate the treatment efficacy and prognosis.