Use of 11C-Choline positron emission tomography/computed tomography to investigate the mechanism of choline metabolism in lung cancer

The present study was conducted to investigate the 11C-Choline metabolic mechanism and examine the association between 11C-Choline metabolism and uptake in different pathological types of lung cancer. A total of 18 tumor specimens and corresponding normal lung tissues were collected from patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer using 11C-Choline positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) imaging between January 2007 and December 2008 at the Medical Imaging Center of the Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University. The diagnosis was further confirmed pathologically following surgery. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and western blotting were used to investigate the expression of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and choline kinase α (ChoK) in lung cancer tissue and normal lung tissue. The 11C-Choline PET/CT data were analyzed visually and semiquantitatively. Compared with the expression in the normal lung tissues, the mRNA and protein expression of ChAT and ChoK increased in nine and 14 of the 18 lung tumors, respectively. A total of eight of the 18 tumors exhibited significantly increased expression, while three exhibited no expression of ChoK and ChAT. All lung cancer lesions were visualized with 11C-Choline PET/CT imaging. The phosphorylation and acetylation pathways of choline metabolism may be important in 11C-Choline uptake and metabolism in different pathological types of lung cancer.