Case report of PET/CT imaging of a patient with neuroblastoma using 18F-FPBG.

Abstract

The use of an (18)F-labeled radiopharmaceutical for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of sympathetic neuronal activity has a tremendous clinical impact because it circumvents the substantial drawbacks of the prototypical imaging agent, (123)I-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG). We describe a 14-year-old male patient who had neuroblastoma and underwent (18)F-fluoropropylbenzylguanidine (FPBG) PET/computed tomography (CT). We compared the findings of (18)F-FPBG PET/CT with those of (123)I-MIBG γ scintigraphy. (18)F-FPBG PET/CT readily demonstrated a focal lesion in the left tibia, but the lesion was not seen using (123)I-MIBG scintigraphy. Surgical resection proved the presence of a neuroblastoma lesion in the left tibia. To the best of our knowledge, our study was the first to use an (18)F-labeled radiopharmaceutical for evaluating sympathetic neuronal activity in neuroblastoma. We suggest that (18)F-FPBG is a promising PET agent for imaging sympathetic neuronal activity in neuroblastoma.