Evaluation of Fluciclovine Uptake in Patients With Cervical, Ovarian Epithelial or Endometrial Cancers. Pilot Study.

An important part of staging and deciding the method of treatment is knowing areas of how cancer is involved. Diagnostic imaging is often used to determine the location of the cancer using techniques like nuclear medicine, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CT (computerized tomography), and ultrasound. Each technique looks for cancer in different ways and are often used together to make a better determination of the extent of disease.

One of the techniques used in cancer imaging is PET/CT. This technique combines a nuclear medicine study (PET or positron emission tomography) with CT performing both scans at the same time. PET/CT most commonly uses a radioactive sugar (FDG or fluorodeoxyglucose) to detect the cancer. The problem with FDG is that it is excreted by the kidneys and collected in the bladder. Even though the bladder is emptied prior to the scan, the FDG activity present there may interfere with the detection of small areas of cancer involvement in lymph nodes or adjacent areas. It is because of this that PET/CT using FDG is infrequently used in gynecological cancers.

This purpose of this study is to evaluate if 18F-fluciclovine can be used to help determine the extent of gynecological cancers. 18F-fluciclovine (also known as AXUMIN) is a radioactive tracer which has been approved by the FDAFood and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in patients with prostate cancer. 18F-fluciclovine has much less excretion through the kidneys which improves the PET/CT imaging of the pelvis.