Simon Walker-Samuel1, Peter Johnson2,
Barbara Pedley2, Mark F. Lythgoe*1, Xavier Golay*3
1UCL Centre for Advanced Biomedical
Imaging, Department of Medicine & Institute of Child Health, University
College London, London, United Kingdom; 2Institute of Cancer,
University College London, United Kingdom; 3Institute of
Neurology, University College London, United Kingdom
Tumours typically rely on glycolytic metabolism rather than oxidative phosphorylation and, as such, their rate of glucose uptake and metabolism is generally greater than most other tissues. It has previously been shown that chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) can be used to detect glycogen in liver, via the selective saturation of exchangeable protons in OH groups. In this study, the ability of gluco-CEST to detect exogenously administered glucose in subcutaneous tumour xenograft models was evaluated, using two acquisition sequences. A significant, spatially heterogeneous enhancement was observed in all but one tumour.