Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of [1-(11)C]acetate (AC) as a metabolic tracer for renal cell cancer in human subjects.
Methods: Twenty-one patients with suspected kidney tumours were investigated with AC and dynamic PET. AC uptake was scored on a five-step scale. Tumour localisation was known from CT/MRI. Histology was available in 18/21 patients. The results in these 18 patients are reported.
Results: AC uptake by the tumour was less than (n=11), equal to (n=5) or higher than (n=2) uptake in the surrounding renal parenchyma. Histological tumour types showed a typical distribution, with a predominance of clear cell carcinomas (n=14) and only a small number of papillary cell carcinomas (n=2) and oncocytomas (n=2). Only the benign oncocytomas were highly positive with AC.
Conclusion: In most kidney tumours the AC accumulation was not higher than in normal kidney parenchyma. Therefore, AC PET cannot be recommend for the characterisation of a renal mass.