Journal Article

DZNE-2026-01154

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png [18F]FET PET enables histopathology-validated detection of non-contrast-enhancing glioblastoma.

Stürzl, R. ; Kirchleitner, S. V. ; Lorenz, J. ; Schmidbauer, K. J. ; Stöcklein, V. ; Quach, S. ; Kaiser, L. ; Stöcklein, S. ; Zounek, A. J. ; Barci, E. ; von Polenz, I. ; Blobner, J. ; Greve, T. ; Brendel, M.DZNE* ; Harter, P. ; Ruf, V. C. ; Rupprecht, R. ; Ringel, F. ; Kalasauskas, D. ; Riemenschneider, M. J. ; Thon, N. ; von Baumgarten, L. ; Tonn, J.-C. ; Albert, N. L.

2026
Springer Nature [London]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1038/s41467-026-78980-1

Abstract: Accurate visualization of glioblastoma is essential for guiding biopsy, resection and radiotherapy. Contrast-enhanced MRI is routine in clinical practice, yet it can miss metabolically active tumor outside areas of blood-brain barrier disruption. In a histopathology-validated cohort with 472 tissue samples of 61 patients with IDH-wildtype glioblastoma, we show that O-(2-[¹⁸F]fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine PET ([18F]FET PET) depicts tumor tissue significantly better than contrast-enhanced MRI (CE-MRI), especially in regions that show no enhancement on MRI. [18F]FET PET achieves substantially higher sensitivity for tumor detection (91.2% vs 52.6%) and maintains high reliability in non-enhancing tissue (positive predictive value 98.3%), findings that are consistent across newly diagnosed and recurrent disease and in both cohorts undergoing either resection or biopsy. These results indicate that [18F]FET PET complements MRI by revealing MRI-occult tumor burden. Incorporating amino acid PET into routine planning may therefore improve the accuracy of tumor visualization and, ultimately, patient management.

Keyword(s): Glioblastoma: diagnostic imaging (MeSH) ; Glioblastoma: pathology (MeSH) ; Humans (MeSH) ; Positron-Emission Tomography: methods (MeSH) ; Brain Neoplasms: diagnostic imaging (MeSH) ; Brain Neoplasms: pathology (MeSH) ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MeSH) ; Tyrosine: analogs & derivatives (MeSH) ; Female (MeSH) ; Male (MeSH) ; Middle Aged (MeSH) ; Aged (MeSH) ; Adult (MeSH) ; Contrast Media (MeSH) ; Tyrosine ; (18F)fluoroethyltyrosine ; Contrast Media

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Molecular Neurodegeneration (AG Haass)

Research Program(s):

1. 352 - Disease Mechanisms (POF4-352) (POF4-352)

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