FAP imaging in rare cancer entities-first clinical experience in a broad spectrum of malignancies.

PURPOSE: 68 Ga-FAPI (fibroblast activation protein inhibitor) is a rapidly evolving and highly promising radiotracer for PET/CT imaging, presenting excellent results in a variety of tumor entities, particularly in epithelial carcinomas. This retrospective analysis sought to evaluate the potential and impact of FAPI-PET/CT in rare cancer diseases with respect to improvement in staging and therapy, based on tracer uptake in normal organs and tumors. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifty-five patients with rare tumor entities, defined by a prevalence of 1 person out of 2000 or less, received a 68 Ga-FAPI-PET/CT scan. Fourteen women and 41 men (median age 60) were included within the following subgroups: cancer of unknown primary (n = 10), head and neck cancer (n = 13), gastrointestinal and biliary-pancreatic cancer (n = 17), urinary tract cancer (n = 4), neuroendocrine cancer (n = 4), and others (n = 7). Tracer uptake was quantified by standardized uptake values SUVmax and SUVmean and the tumor-to-background ratio (TBR) was determined (SUVmax tumor/SUVmean organ). RESULTS: In 20 out of 55 patients, the primary tumor was identified and 31 patients presented metastases (n = 88), characterized by a high mean SUVmax in primary (10.1) and metastatic lesions (7.6). The highest uptake was observed in liver metastases (n = 6) with a mean SUVmax of 9.8 and a high TBR of 8.7, closely followed by peritoneal carcinomatosis (n = 16) presenting a mean SUVmax of 9.8 and an excellent TBR of 29.6. In terms of the included subgroups, the highest uptake regarding mean SUVmax was determined in gastrointestinal and biliary-pancreatic cancer with 9.8 followed closely by urinary tract cancer with 9.5 and head and neck cancer (9.1). CONCLUSION: Due to excellent tumor visualization and, thereby, sharp contrasts in terms of high TBRs in primary and metastatic lesions in different rare malignancies, 68 Ga-FAPI-PET/CT crystallizes as a powerful and valuable imaging tool, particularly with respect to epithelial carcinomas, and therefore an enhancement to standard diagnostics imaging methodologies. The realization of further and prospective studies is of large importance to confirm the potential of FAP imaging in oncology.

A microcomputer-controlled system for automatic acquisition of kinetic data of gas uptake at constant pressure.

A microcomputer-controlled apparatus for measuring the kinetics of gas uptake in a chemical reaction at constant pressure and temperature is described. The slight pressure decrease caused by consumption of the gas is transformed into an electrical signal. A microprocessor stores the time at which the signal occurs and activates a motor-driven burette to restore the original pressure. At the end of the experiment, the data are recorded on magnetic tape by a cassette recorder and can be transferred from the tape to a desk computer for plotting or further mathematical treatment. The performance of the apparatus is illustrated by the example of the catalytic oxidation of benzoin in dimethyl sulphoxide.

Calculation of equilibrium constants from multiwavelength spectroscopic data-I Mathematical considerations.

Multiwavelength spectrophotometric and spectroscopic data in general contain considerably more information about complexation equilibria than potentiometric data do. With the construction of a fully automatic titration set-up built into a high-precision spectrophotometer, the problems related to the wider use of this method have shifted from the quality of the primary data to the complexity of their numerical treatment. Matrix algebra is used to show how these problems can be overcome. An algorithm is described for calculation of stability constants and absorption spectra, together with the associated standard errors, at a reasonable expense of computer time. Problems in finding the minimum in a multidimensional parameter space are reduced by elimination of the molar absorptivities from the algorithm for the iterative refinement. Numerical safety and speed of calculation are improved by use of analytical instead of numerical derivatives. The number of data to be fitted is decreased by principal-component analysis.

Calculation of equilibrium constants from multiwavelength spectroscopic data--II: SPECFIT: two user-friendly programs in basic and standard FORTRAN 77.

A new program (SPECFIT), written in HP BASIC or FORTRAN 77, for the calculation of stability constants from spectroscopic data, is presented. Stability constants have been successfully calculated from multiwavelength spectrophotometric and EPR data, but the program can be equally well applied to the numerical treatment of other spectroscopic measurements. The special features included in SPECFIT to improve convergence, increase numerical reliability, and minimize memory as well as computing time requirements, include (i) elimination of the linear parameters (i.e., molar absorptivities), (ii) the use of analytical instead of numerical derivatives and (iii) factor analysis. Calculation of stability constants from spectroscopic data is then as straightforward as from potentiometric titration curves and gives results of analogous reproducibility. The spectroscopic method has proved, however, to be superior in discrimination between chemical models.

Calculation of equilibrium constants from multiwavelength spectroscopic data-III Model-free analysis of spectrophotometric and ESR titrations.

Factor analysis of spectroscopic data is a well-known tool for the determination of the number of independent absorbing species in a series of mixtures. It has also been used for the reduction of the data-set in the calculation of equilibrium constants from multiwavelength data. The paper presents a new application of this powerful technique. In a completely model-free treatment, data from spectrophotometric or other spectroscopic titrations are subjected to repetitive abstract factor analysis. By starting with only the first two spectra, and introducing the additional measurements one by one, the number of significant eigenvalues is obtained as a function of the progressing titration. On repetition of the process from the opposite end and judicious combination of the results, the formation and dissociation of individual "species" can be obtained. After association of actual stoichiometries with these purely abstract "species" by chemical reasoning, it may be possible to arrive at a semiquantitative description and reasonable estimates for the equilibrium constants. This method is most successful for the detection of minor species which would go unnoticed in any visual inspection of spectrophotometric titration curves.

Microprocessor-controlled system for automatic acquisition of potentiometric data and their non-linear least-squares fit in equilibrium studies.

A microprocessor-controlled potentiometric titration apparatus for equilibrium studies is described. The microprocessor controls the stepwise addition of reagent, monitors the pH until it becomes constant and stores the constant value. The data are recorded on magnetic tape by a cassette recorder with an RS232 input-output interface. A non-linear least-squares program based on Marquardt's modification of the Newton-Gauss method is discussed and its performance in the calculation of equilibrium constants is exemplified. An HP 9821 desk-top computer accepts the data from the magnetic tape recorder. In addition to a fully automatic fitting procedure, the program allows manual adjustment of the parameters. Three examples are discussed with regard to performance and reproducibility.

Calculation of equilibrium constants from multiwavelength spectroscopic data-IV Model-free least-squares refinement by use of evolving factor analysis.

The newly developed algorithm of evolving factor analysis has been supplemented by iterative refinement. It allows the completely model-free calculation of concentration profiles and spectra from spectrophotometric and other spectroscopic data. Not even implicit use is made of the law of mass action. The results are practically identical with those based on a specific chemical model and classical least-squares refinement. Iterative evolving factor analysis is based on applying factor analysis successively to the set of the first 1,2 cdots, three dots, centered M spectra of a spectrometric titration. The analysis is repeated from the opposite end and the eigenvalues thus calculated are combined into "concentration profiles" of completely abstract "species". These "concentration profiles" are iteratively refined by normalization, calculation of the absorption spectra from the normalized concentrations and recalculation of the concentration profiles from the absorption spectra. Evolving factor analysis is not restricted to spectrometric titrations, and can also be applied to peak resolution in chromatography using a multiwavelength (diode array) photometric or mass-spectrometric detection system, or to any other ordered set of multichannel data.