Yi-Fen Yen1, dirk Mayer2,3, Patrick Le Roux4, Randy Lee King2, Dan Spielman2, Jim Tropp5, Adolf Pfefferbaum3,6, Ralph E. Hurd1, Shreyas Vasanawala2
1Global Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Menlo Park, CA, USA; 2Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; 3Neuroscience Program, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, USA; 4Global Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Palaiseau, France; 5Global Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Fremont, CA, USA; 6Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
High alanine signal and long alanine T2 relaxation time were observed in rat liver tumors following hyperpolarized 13C-pyruvate injections. The measurements were performed on five tumor lesions in four rats. Reproducibility was assessed in normal livers in three control rats. The average T2 of normal livers and liver tumors is 0.6s and 1.2s, respectively. The 13C-alanine signal normalized to total 13C signal was found to be 2.1 times higher in liver tumors than in normal livers. 13C-alanine may be a new marker for liver tumors. Its diagnostic values in cancer detection and treatment monitoring are yet to be explored.