Evaluation of the Use of Radiomics in 18F-FDOPA PET Examinations for the Characterization of Gliomas

The evaluation of gliomas in imaging represents a real challenge today, at the initial diagnosis, for therapeutic planning or follow-up treatment of these lesions. There is an urgent need for non-invasive imaging tools to evaluate a glioma throughout its management. At present, the diagnosis of certainty is only obtained through an anatomo-pathological analysis with sampling during an invasive procedure (surgery or biopsy). Magnetic resonance imaging, through perfusion, diffusion imaging or spectroscopy is developing in gliomas. However, it remains time-consuming and is not always available. At the same time, positron emission tomography (PET) with amino acids is an interesting alternative for these brain tumours. Amino acid PET has the advantage of being more specific than the abnormalities detected in MRI and the amino acid radiotracers cross the blood-brain barrier, even if not broken, unlike Gadolinium in MRI. Among these radiotracers, 18F-FDOPA can, among other things, assist in the non-invasive staging of gliomas at initial diagnosis.