This clinical trial studies fluorine F 18 L-glutamate derivative BAY94-9392 (18F-FSPG) positron emission tomography (PET) in imaging patients with liver cancer before undergoing surgery or transplant. Diagnostic procedures, such as 18F-FSPG PET, may help find and diagnose liver cancer and find out how far the disease has spread.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES: I. To evaluate the relationship between 18F-FSPG PET/computed tomography (CT), pathology, and cancer metabolism in patients with suspected hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) scheduled for liver resection surgery and orthotopic liver transplant (OLT). II. To compare 18F-FSPG PET/CT with standard-of-care (SOC) diagnostic MRI imaging in patients with suspected HCC scheduled for liver resection surgery or OLT. III. To compare the uptake of 18F-FSPG PET/CT with 11C-acetate PET/CT AND 18F-FDG PET/CT in suspected HCC and background liver in patients scheduled for liver resection surgery or OLT. IV. To evaluate uptake of 18F-FSPG PET/CT in benign liver lesions compared to background. V. To evaluate uptake of 18F-FSPG PET/CT in malignant non-HCC liver tumors. OUTLINE: Patients undergo 18F-FSPG PET and either carbon-11 (11C)-acetate PET or 18F-FDG PET scans within 4 weeks of surgery or OLT.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
DIAGNOSTIC
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
110
Undergo 18F-FSPG PET scan
Undergo 11C-acetate PET scan
Undergo 18F-FSPG, 11C-acetate, or 18F-FDG PET
Correlative studies
Undergo 18F-FDG PET scan
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, Texas, United States
18F-FSPG PET standardized uptake value (SUV)
The Standardized Uptake Value (SUV) for 18F-FSPG PET images will be determined in the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumor lesions, non-HCC liver tumors (benign), and background liver (normal tissue). These metrics include SUVmax, SUVpeak, or SUVmean and are common PET imaging measures.
Time frame: Within 4 weeks of standard-of-care imaging, within 4 weeks of liver resection surgery, within 12 months of orthotopic liver transplant and prior to therapy
11C-acetate standardized uptake value (SUV)
The Standardized Uptake Value (SUV) for 11C-acetate PET images will be determined in the tumor lesions and background liver (normal tissue). These metrics include SUVmax, SUVpeak, or SUVmean and are common PET imaging measures.
Time frame: Within 4 weeks of standard-of-care imaging, within 4 weeks of liver resection surgery, within 12 months of orthotopic liver transplant and prior to therapy
18F-FDG standardized uptake value (SUV)
The Standardized Uptake Value (SUV) for 18F-FDG PET images will be determined in the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumor lesions and background liver (normal tissue). These metrics include SUVmax, SUVpeak, or SUVmean and are common PET imaging measures.
Time frame: Within 4 weeks of standard-of-care imaging, within 4 weeks of liver resection surgery, within 12 months of orthotopic liver transplant and prior to therapy
Pharmacokinetics of 18F-FSPG, 11C-acetate, and 18F-FDG
The pharmacokinetics of 18F-FSPG, 11C-acetate and 18F-FDG uptake will be determined using compartmental modeling of PET imaging data. Venous samples will be collected over the course of 18F-FSPG, 11C-acetate and 18F-FDG scans to confirm blood pool radioactivity, evaluate metabolism, and to calibrate image-derived input functions. We will also utilize blood samples collected prior to scanning to assay plasma levels of carbon-12 acetate and glucose in each patient to explore normalizing pharmacokinetic parameters across patients.
Time frame: Within 4 weeks of standard-of-care imaging, within 4 weeks of liver resection surgery, within 12 months of orthotopic liver transplant and prior to therapy
Number of lesions
The number of lesions detected by 18F-FSPG PET will be determined and compared to the number of lesions detected by standard-of-care MRI, 11C-acetate PET, or 18F-FDG PET on a per patient basis.
Time frame: Within 4 weeks of liver resection surgery, within 12 months of orthotopic liver transplant and prior to therapy
Sensitivity of 18F-FSPG PET imaging
Sensitivity is defined as the true positive rate. It is defined as true positive/(true positive + false negative). The determination of HCC status will be based on diagnostic pathology.
Time frame: Within 4 weeks of standard-of-care imaging, within 4 weeks of liver resection surgery, within 12 months of orthotopic liver transplant and prior to therapy
Specificity of 18F-FSPG PET imaging
Specificity is defined as the true negative rate. It is defined as true negative/(true negative + false positive). The determination of HCC status will be based on diagnostic pathology.
Time frame: Within 4 weeks of standard-of-care imaging, within 4 weeks of liver resection surgery, within 12 months of orthotopic liver transplant and prior to therapy
Diagnostic pathology
Tissue samples will be obtained for patients following either liver resection surgery or orthotopic liver transplant. Pathology will be performed on these tumor tissues as the gold-standard assessment to confirm the presence of HCC tumor. Histology will be correlated to PET imaging data.
Time frame: After surgery; Through study completion, up to 4 years
Tumor grade
Tissue samples will be obtained for patients following either liver resection surgery or orthotopic liver transplant. Tumor grade will be determined from pathology of tissue samples and correlated to PET imaging data for 18F-FSPG, 11C-acetate and 18F-FDG PET. The concordance of 18F-FSPG PET/CT and 11C-acetate PET/CT or 18F-FSPG PET/CT and 18F-FDG PET/CT will be evaluated. This will determine whether 18F-FSPG can be used singularly in place of combined use of 11C-acetate PET/CT (which typically detects low grade HCC) and 18F-FDG PET/CT (which typically detects high grade HCC).
Time frame: After surgery; Through study completion, up to 4 years
Immunohistochemistry
Tissue samples will be obtained for patients following liver resection surgery. The expression of immunohistochemical markers (ie. xC- and CD44) will be evaluated in these tumor tissues on an ordinal scale of 0, 1, 2 or 3 and correlated to 18F-FSPG PET imaging data. In addition, markers of inflammation and immune cell recruitment (ie. CD86, CD163, CD3), proliferation (Ki67), and apoptosis (Caspase 3) will also be evaluated and correlated to 18F-FSPG PET imaging data.
Time frame: After surgery; Through study completion, up to 4 years
Metabolic profile
HCC tumor and non-cancerous liver tissue samples will be obtained for patients following liver resection surgery. Overall, tumoral tissue, peritumoral tissue and grossly normal surrounding liver will be evaluated. Metabolic profiles will be analyzed by mass spectrometry. The unbiased metabolomic phenome will be determined and correlated to 18F-FSPG PET.
Time frame: After surgery; Through study completion, up to 4 years
Milan classification
Milan criteria will be applied to standard-of-care (SOC) MRI images. The number and size of lesions will be determined. A patient will be deemed to meet Milan criteria if they exhibit A) A single lesion 2 to 5 cm in diameter or B) Three or fewer tumors, each measuring 1 to 3 cm in diameter, and C) No evidence of extrahepatic involvement or microvascular invasion. The proportion of patients whose Milan classification by novel imaging classification changed following validation by histological confirmation will be determined.
Time frame: Baseline prior to imaging and surgery
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