TSPO PET signal using [18F]GE180 is associated with survival in recurrent gliomas
Stefanie Quach, Adrien Holzgreve, Lena Kaiser, Marcus Unterrainer, Franziska J. Dekorsy, D Nelwan, Laura M. Bartos, Sabrina V. Kirchleitner, Jonathan Weller, Lorraine Weidner, Maximilian Niyazi, Viktoria Ruf, Jochen Herms, Sophia Stöcklein, Christian H. Wetzel, Markus J. Riemenschneider, Louisa von Baumgarten, Niklas Thon, Matthias Brendel, Rainer Rupprecht, Peter Bartenstein, Joerg‐Christian Tonn, Nathalie L. Albert
Abstract
Abstract Purpose Glioma patients, especially recurrent glioma, suffer from a poor prognosis. While advances to classify glioma on a molecular level improved prognostication at initial diagnosis, markers to prognosticate survival in the recurrent situation are still needed. As 18 kDa translocator protein (TSPO) was previously reported to be associated with aggressive histopathological glioma features, we correlated the TSPO positron emission tomography (PET) signal using [ 18 F]GE180 in a large cohort of recurrent glioma patients with their clinical outcome. Methods In patients with [ 18 F]GE180 PET at glioma recurrence, [ 18 F]GE180 PET parameters (e.g., SUV max ) as well as other imaging features (e.g., MRI volume, [ 18 F]FET PET parameters when available) were evaluated together with patient characteristics (age, sex, Karnofsky-Performance score) and neuropathological features (e.g. WHO 2021 grade, IDH -mutation status). Uni- and multivariate Cox regression and Kaplan–Meier survival analyses were performed to identify prognostic factors for post-recurrence survival (PRS) and time to treatment failure (TTF). Results Eighty-eight consecutive patients were evaluated. TSPO tracer uptake correlated with tumor grade at recurrence ( p < 0.05), with no significant differences in IDH -wild-type versus IDH -mutant tumors. Within the subgroup of IDH -mutant glioma ( n = 46), patients with low SUV max (median split, ≤ 1.60) had a significantly longer PRS (median 41.6 vs. 25.3 months, p = 0.031) and TTF (32.2 vs 8.7 months, p = 0.001). Also among IDH -wild-type glioblastoma ( n = 42), patients with low SUV max (≤ 1.89) had a significantly longer PRS (median not reached vs 8.2 months, p = 0.002). SUV max remained an independent prognostic factor for PRS in the multivariate analysis including CNS WHO 2021 grade, IDH status, and age. Tumor volume defined by [ 18 F]FET PET or contrast-enhanced MRI correlated weakly with TSPO tracer uptake. Treatment regimen did not differ among the median split subgroups. Conclusion Our data suggest that TSPO PET using [ 18 F]GE180 can help to prognosticate recurrent glioma patients even among homogeneous molecular subgroups and may therefore serve as valuable non-invasive biomarker for individualized patient management. Graphical abstract