Gutte, H., et al., The use of dynamic nuclear polarization 13C-pyruvate MRS in cancer. Am J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2015. 5(5): p. 548-560.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4620180/pdf/ajnmmi0005-0548.pdf
In recent years there has been an immense development of new targeted anti-cancer drugs. For practicing precision medicine, a sensitive method imaging for non-invasive, assessment of early treatment response and for assisting in developing new drugs is warranted. Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) is a potent technique for non-invasive in vivo investigation of tissue chemistry and cellular metabolism. Hyperpolarization by Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) is capable of creating solutions of molecules with polarized nuclear spins in a range of biological molecules and has enabled the real-time investigation of in vivo metabolism. The development of this new method has been demonstrated to enhance the nuclear polarization more than 10,000-fold, thereby significantly increasing the sensitivity of the MRS with a spatial resolution to the millimeters and a temporal resolution at the subsecond range. Furthermore, the method enables measuring kinetics of conversion of substrates into cell metabolites and can be integrated with anatomical proton magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Many nuclei and substrates have been hyperpolarized using the DNP method. Currently, the most widely used compound is 13C-pyruvate due to favoring technicalities. Intravenous injection of the hyperpolarized 13C-pyruvate results in appearance of 13C-lactate, 13C-alanine and 13C-bicarbonate resonance peaks depending on the tissue, disease and the metabolic state probed. In cancer, the lactate level is increased due to increased glycolysis. The use of DNP enhanced 13C-pyruvate has in preclinical studies shown to be a sensitive method for detecting cancer and for assessment of early treatment response in a variety of cancers. Recently, a first-in-man 31-patient study was conducted with the primary objective to assess the safety of hyperpolarized 13C-pyruvate in healthy subjects and prostate cancer patients. The study showed an elevated 13C-lactate/13C-pyruvate ratio in regions of biopsy-proven prostate cancer compared to noncancerous tissue. However, more studies are needed in order to establish use of hyperpolarized 13C MRS imaging of cancer.