FEASIBLITY OF FLUORINE-18 FLUCICLOVINE PET-CT AND MRI FOR MONITORING OF CHEMO-RADIATION IN GLIOBLASTOMA: INITIAL RESULTS FROM A PILOT STUDY

Abstract BACKGROUND Glioblastoma has a poor prognosis despite treatment with surgery and chemo-radiotherapy (CRT). Monitoring early response to CRT is challenging and conventional imaging is sub-optimal for stratifying poorly responding patients for novel agents. Also, imaging is not routinely performed during CRT and consequently, personalised treatment through individualised radiation dose adaption is not possible. AIMS: To evalutate the feasibility of Fluorine-18 Fluciclovine PET-CT for early response assessment during and post-treatment in patients with glioblastoma undergoing standard-of-care CRT. METHODS Patients with confirmed glioblastoma and macroscopic residual tumour post-surgery were consented for PET-CT and MRI prior to CRT (scan 1), after completing 2 weeks (10 fractions) of CRT (scan 2) and 6 weeks after completing treatment (scan 3). For each scan, patients were immobilised in a radiotherapy treatment mask. PET-CT and MRI scans were performed at each timepoint within a few days of each other. Patients were treated and followed up according to local guidelines. RESULTS 6 patients were recruited to the study between June 2018 and May 2019. All patients tolerated the additional imaging without problems. 2 patients were unable to attend their post-treatment PET-CT scan due to clinical deterioration. Fluciclovine PET-CT highlighted potentially active disease beyond the surgical cavity pre-radiotherapy (scan 1) in 3 patients. In 4/6, PET signal persisted after 2 weeks of radiotherapy with stable MRI appearances (scan 2). Frank disease progression was seen in 1 patient on both MRI and PET-CT mid-treatment. 3/4 patients with persistent activity at scan 2, showed disease progression post-treatment on both PET-CT and MRI (scan 3). Another had progressive changes on MRI but stable PET-CT appearances possibly representing pseudoprogression. CONCLUSION These preliminary results suggest that Fluciclovine PET-CT could help in monitoring treatment and further work to assess the ability to guide individualised treatment planning in glioblastoma is warranted.