What nuclear cardiology can learn from nuclear oncology

✍ Scribed by Ismet Sarikaya; Steven M Larson; Alvin Freiman; H.William Strauss

• Book ID: 104375604
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 61 KB
• Volume: 10
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1071-3581
• DOI: 10.1016/s1071-3581(03)00521-x

✦ Synopsis

FDG enters cells by an energy requiring glucose transport system. GLUT 1 and GLUT 4 have been identified as major transporters of glucose. Once in the cell, FDG is phosphorylated to FDG-6-phosphate, a form of the sugar which cannot diffuse through the cell membrane. The next metabolic step, phosphorylation at the 1 position to form FDG 1,6, diphosphate cannot occur because of the lack of the hydroxyl group in the 2 position. The FDG-6-phosphate will remain trapped in the cell unless the enzyme glucose-6-phosphatase is present. If the phosphate is enzymatically removed, the FDG can diffuse out of the cell. The liver is high in glucose-6-phosphatase, and hence, has little FDG concentration. Fortunately, most tumors do not express glucose-6-phosphatase, resulting in a high concentration of FDG in the lesions.