[76Br]Bromodeoxyuridine PET in tumor-bearing animals.

5-bromodeoxyuridine (BUdR) provides in vitro measures of tumor cell proliferation. We used positron emission tomography to study tissue and plasma kinetics of [76Br]BUdR in tumor-bearing animals. In order to account for the slow washout of the major plasma metabolite, [76Br]bromide, a mathematical correction for the distribution volume of [76Br]bromide was applied. However, following correction specific tumor tracer retention was low or even zero and did not correlate with independent measures of proliferation. The kinetic characteristics of [76Br]BUdR make this tracer unsuitable for proliferation imaging.