[11C]Choline as a potential PET marker for imaging of breast cancer athymic mice.

[11C]Choline has been evaluated as a potential positron emission tomography (PET) marker for imaging of breast cancer. The biodistribution of [11C]choline was determined at 45 min post iv injection in MCF-7's transfected with IL-1alpha implanted athymic mice and MDA-MB-435 implanted athymic mice. The results showed the uptake of [11C]choline in these tumors was high, 2.0% dose/g in MCF-7's transfected with IL-1alpha implanted mice and 1.8% dose/g in MDA-MB-435 implanted mice; the ratios of tumor/muscle (T/M) and tumor/blood (T/B) were 1.7 (T/M, MCF-7's), 2.1 (T/M, MDA-MB-435) and 6.9 (T/B, MCF-7's), 12.5 (T/B, MDA-MB-435), respectively; the tumor/muscle ratios are moderate, and the tumor/blood ratios are high. The micro-PET imaging of [11C]choline in both breast cancer athymic mice was acquired for 15 min from a MCF-7's transfected with IL-1alpha and/or MDA-MB-435 implanted mouse at 45 min post iv injection of 1 mCi of the tracer using a dedicated high resolution (<3 mm full-width at half-maximum) small FOV (field-of-view) PET imaging system, Indy-PET II scanner, developed in our laboratory, which showed the uptake of [11C]choline in MCF-7's transfected with IL-1alpha tumor or MDA-MB-435 tumor implanted in a nude athymic mouse. These results suggest that [11C]choline may be a potential PET breast cancer imaging agent.