⁶⁸Ga-citrate PET/CT is Valuable for Abdominal Lymphoma Imaging

Ling Wang, Jiong Cai, Hong Yang, Zhaohui Zhu, Fang Li

Introduction: Although ⁶⁷Ga-citrate has been used in scintigraphic imaging for lymphoma, the long physical half-life of ⁶⁷Ga and inferior resolution of SPECT scanner limited the wide-spread application of this agent. In contrast, the ideal physical half-life of ⁶⁸Ga and superior resolution of PET scanner push us to test lymphoma imaging potential of ⁶⁸Ga-citrate. Materials: Sodium citrate was added into newly eluted ⁶⁸Ga and incubated at room temperature for 15min for ⁶⁸Ga-citrate preparation. Three patients with abdominal lymphoma were retrospectively analyzed after ⁶⁸Ga-citrate PET/CT imaging. Results: ⁶⁸Ga-citrate was labeled with >99% yield and purity within 15 minutes. ⁶⁸Ga-citrate PET/CT revealed rapid progression of bowel diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in one patient; ⁶⁸Ga-citrate revealed more lesion than ¹⁸F-FDG in another diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patient; ⁶⁸Ga-citrate imaging was negative in an enteropathy-associated T cell lymphoma patient. Conclusion: A simplified method to prepare ⁶⁸Ga-citrate without nuclide pre-purification is available. ⁶⁸Ga-citrate can be used for lymphoma imaging and further evaluation is warranted.