摘要
Aim:The purpose of this study was to locate the levels of hypoxia in glioblastoma PET images measured with 18F-fluoromisonidazole in human subjects.It is recognized that tumors with hypoxia are resistant to treatment by radiotherapy and chemotherapy.Methods:The images were acquired in dynamic mode for 15 min or 30 min and in static mode for two single scans at 2 h and 3 h to allow the accumulation of the radiotracer in the tumor.The images were analyzed at the voxel basis with compartmental analysis(CA)and with the usual tumor-to-blood uptake ratio(TBR).Kmeans algorithm was applied to cluster the levels of hypoxia in the images.Results:TBR at a threshold of 1.2 at imaging times of 15 min,2 h and 3 h produced images with different clusters.Also,the comparison of TBR with the distribution volume obtained with CA had a similarity index of 0.61±0.05.Conclusion:We found some differences in defining the hypoxic volume within a tumor using TBR.The compartmental analysis allowed discrimination of the tumor hypoxic sub-volumes which can be useful for a better treatment with radiotherapy.
