[¹⁸F]-choline PET/CT as an imaging biomarker for primary liver cancers

Choline-based radiotracers were initially developed for prostate cancer imaging (1-4). Comparing to C-11 labeled native choline, the transport efficiency of F-18 labeled fluorinated choline (fluorocholine) is similar, and the substrate specificity of choline kinase, a key enzyme responsible for choline uptake, is also similar towards both for prostate cancer imaging (5). Fluorocholine is labeled with F-18 with a half-life of almost 2 hours for radio-decay, which is long enough for commercial production and dispensing. In addition, fluorocholine with a known dosimetry has comparable safety profile to that of the native choline (6).