Prospective study of p-[123I]iodo-L-phenylalanine and SPECT for the evaluation of newly diagnosed cerebral lesions: specific confirmation of glioma

Purpose The differentiation between gliomas, metastases and gliotic or inflammatory lesions by imaging techniques remains a challenge. Gliomas frequently exhibit increased uptake of radiolabelled amino acids and are thus amenable to PET or SPECT imaging. Recently, p-[123I]iodo-L-phenylalanine (IPA) was validated for the visualization of glioma by SPECT and received orphan drug status. Here we investigated its diagnostic performance for differentiating indeterminate brain lesions.