Methionine-Labeled PET/CT in Detecting Tumors in Younger Patients with Cancer

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:

I. To estimate the success rate of methionine (MET) for visualizing tumors at the time of diagnosis.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE:

I. To compare uptake of MET in tumors with tumor grade in patients with newly diagnosed or relapsed, and/or persistent disease.

EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES:

I. To compare the findings on MET PET scans with those of standard imaging modalities, principally magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose)/PET CT (computed tomography) at diagnosis, or at study enrollment for patients with relapsed and or persistent disease, and for all patients over time.

II. To compare the extent of abnormality on MRI with that of MET.

III. To determine the presence or absence of elevated MET uptake beyond those of MRI defined abnormality.

IV. To examine the bio-distribution of MET in organs that do not contain tumor, in particular the lungs, heart, mediastinum, liver, spleen, pancreas, muscle, brain, and bone marrow.

V. To explore the relationship between MET uptake and prognosis.

OUTLINE:

Patients undergo methionine C 11 PET/CT scan at baseline. Patients with positive scans undergo additional scans 4-16 weeks after initiation of therapy and at completion of the last therapeutic regimen.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up annually for up to 3 years. Patients being studied on the open-access cohort will remain on study for one year following their last MET PET scan.