The application of ¹¹C-methionine and ¹¹C-choline in PET and PET-CT for cerebral gliomas

¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG) was wildly used radiopharmaceuticals for brain tumors. However, the diagnosis and evaluation of ¹⁸F-FDG in cerebral gliomas of pre-and post-therapy were affected due to its normal biodistribution and natural pitfalls. The researches indicates that both ¹¹C-methionine (¹¹C-MET) and ¹¹C-choline overcome the limitations of ¹⁸F-FDG, and become an important surrogate or supplement in PET and PET-CT for cerebral gliomas through these aspects of the pretherapeutic diagnostic value, monitoring of therapeutic effects, and the differential diagnosis and assessment between the recurrent or residual tumors and radiation necrosis or post-therapeutic response.