18F‐2‐deoxy‐2‐fluoro‐D‐glucose uptake into human tumor xenografts. Feasibility studies for cancer imaging with positron‐emission tomography

The positron‐emitting glucose analogue ¹⁸F‐2‐fluoro‐2‐deoxy‐d‐glucose (FDG) was evaluated for its accretion into the following subcutaneous human tumor xenografts in nude mice: B‐cell lymphoma (Namalwa or Raji), ovarian carcinoma (HTB77), colon cancer (SW948), choriocarcinoma (BEWO), bladder cancer (UM‐UC‐2), renal cell carcinoma (UM‐RC‐3), neuroblastoma (Mey), melanoma (HTB63), and small cell lung carcinoma (NCI69). Two hours postinjection, tumor uptakes ranged from 0.027 (colon cancer) to 0.125% kg injected dose/g (melanoma); and was greater than 0.085 in the Namalwa lymphomas and the renal cell carcinomas. Tumor‐blood ratios of up to 23:1 were seen 2 hours postinjection (melanoma) with a mean tumor‐blood ratio for all tumors of 12.3 ± 1.8. Uptake in the other tumors was intermediate. When evaluated, tumor uptake was slightly greater at 1 than at 2 hours postinjection, although target‐background ratios were generally higher at 2 hours postinjection. This compound, FDG, may have broad applicability as a tracer for positron‐emission tomographic imaging of many human malignancies.