Hyperpolarized 13C Lactate, Pyruvate, and Alanine: Noninvasive Biomarkers for Prostate Cancer Detection and Grading

An extraordinary new technique using hyperpolarized 13 C-labeled pyruvate and taking advantage of increased glycolysis in cancer has the potential to improve the way magnetic resonance imaging is used for detection and characterization of prostate cancer. The aim of this study was to quantify, for the first time, differences in hyperpolarized [1- 13 C] pyruvate and its metabolic products between the various histologic grades of prostate cancer using the transgenic adenocarcinoma of mouse prostate (TRAMP) model. Fast spectroscopic imaging techniques were used to image lactate, alanine, and total hyperpolarized carbon (THC = lactate + pyruvate + alanine) from the entire abdomen of normal mice and TRAMP mice with low- and high-grade prostate tumors in 14 s. Within 1 week, the mice were dissected and the tumors were histologically analyzed. Hyperpolarized lactate SNR levels significantly increased ( P 13 C spectroscopic imaging studies of prostate cancer patients. [Cancer Res 2008;68(20):8607–15]