Abstract IA001: Advantages and challenges of amino acid PET imaging in patients with brain tumors

Positron emission tomography (PET) is a noninvasive imaging technique that provides a metabolic assessment of both normal tissue and brain cancer. In recent years, metabolic PET using radiolabelled amino acids has gained increasing interest in the diagnostics of patients with brain tumors and has been established in many neuro-oncological centers especially in Europe as a complementary diagnostic tool to conventional MRI. Besides its main indication - the differentiation of tumor progression from treatment-related changes (e.g., pseudoprogression, radiation necrosis) - amino acid PET offers important additional information for the delineation of glioma extent, which is helpful for biopsy guidance and planning of local therapy such as resection or radiotherapy. Moreover, amino acid PET tracers permit the evaluation of response to various brain tumor treatment options, i.e., chemoradiation, alkylating chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy using immune checkpoint inhibitors. The intended oral presentation discusses the role, strengths, and limitations of metabolic PET imaging in various indications for patients with brain tumors. Citation Format: Norbert Galldiks. Advantages and challenges of amino acid PET imaging in patients with brain tumors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Brain Cancer; 2026 Mar 23-25; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2026;86(6_Suppl):Abstract nr IA001.