{"doi":"10.2967/jnumed.120.261594","title":"First-in-Human PET Imaging and Estimated Radiation Dosimetry of l-[5-<sup>11</sup>C]-Glutamine in Patients with Metastatic Colorectal Cancer","abstract":"Altered metabolism is a hallmark of cancer. In addition to glucose, glutamine is an important nutrient for cellular growth and proliferation. Non-invasive imaging via positron emission tomography (PET) may help facilitate precision treatment of cancer through patient selection and monitoring of treatment response. L-[5-<sup>11</sup>C]-glutamine (<sup>11</sup>C-glutamine) is a PET tracer designed to study glutamine uptake and metabolism. The aim of this first-in-human study was to evaluate the radiologic safety and biodistribution of <sup>11</sup>C-glutamine for oncologic PET imaging. <b>Methods:</b> Nine patients with confirmed metastatic colorectal cancer underwent PET/computed tomography (CT) imaging. Patients received 337.97 ± 44.08 MBq of <sup>11</sup>C-glutamine. Dynamic PET acquisitions centered over the abdomen or thorax were initiated simultaneously with intravenous tracer administration. Following the dynamic acquisition, a whole-body PET/CT was acquired. Volume-of-interest analyses were carried out to obtain estimates of organ-based absorbed doses of radiation. <b>Results:</b><sup>11</sup>C-glutamine was well-tolerated in all patients with no observed safety concerns. Organs with the highest radiation exposure included the bladder, pancreas, and liver. The estimated effective dose was 4.46E-03 ± 7.67E-04 mSv/MBq. Accumulation of <sup>11</sup>C-glutamine was elevated and visualized in lung, brain, bone, and liver metastases, suggesting utility for cancer imaging. <b>Conclusion:</b> PET using <sup>11</sup>C-glutamine appears safe for human use and allows non-invasive visualization of metastatic colon cancer lesions in multiple organs. Further studies are needed to elucidate its potential for other cancers and for monitoring response to treatment.","journal":"Journal of Nuclear Medicine","year":2021,"id":168570,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":30,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9546,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":698682,"name":"Joe Grudzinski","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":698002,"name":"Gary T. Smith","orcid":"0000-0002-9235-4564","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":698003,"name":"Todd E. Peterson","orcid":"0000-0002-5951-7384","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":321556,"name":"Jennifer G. Whisenant","orcid":"0000-0002-3435-2464","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":698683,"name":"Tiffany L. Hickman","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":62897,"name":"Kristen K. Ciombor","orcid":"0000-0002-8992-9515","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":557791,"name":"Dana B. Cardin","orcid":"0000-0002-0269-9615","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":332456,"name":"Cathy Eng","orcid":"0000-0003-2335-0612","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":698004,"name":"Laura W. Goff","orcid":"0000-0001-6719-1479","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":393145,"name":"Satya Das","orcid":"0000-0002-7625-1039","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":86857,"name":"Robert J. Coffey","orcid":"0000-0002-2180-3844","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":44878,"name":"Jordan Berlin","orcid":"0000-0001-7571-2385","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":355719,"name":"H. Charles Manning","orcid":"0000-0002-5057-4518","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":357354,"name":"Allison S. Cohen","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":65,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:46:06.853307Z","pmid":"33931465","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}