see 18f fluorothymidine positron emission computed tomography imaging.

The PET tracer FLT is an analog to the nucleoside thymidine and was developed as a PET agent to assess cellular proliferation by tracking the thymidine salvage pathway ¹⁾.

Fluorothymidine F-18 (FLT) is a tumor-specific PET tracer and radiopharmaceutical. It is a version of alovudine in which the fluorine atom has been isotopically labeled as fluorine-18. FLT is suitable for monitoring how tumors respond to cytostatic therapy. FLT accumulates in proliferating cells where it indicates the activity of the enzyme thymidine kinase. Cell division can be characterized by the activity of that enzyme. FLT is phosphorylated as though it were thymidine, and is subsequently incorporated into DNA. Thymidine is essential for DNA replication. Considering that FLT lacks a 3′-hydroxy group, transcription of DNA is impeded following incorporating of FLT. FLT indicates changes in tumor cell proliferation by tracking the restoration of nucleosides from degenerated DNA.

In a study of the University Medical Centre Groningen, The Netherlands baseline fluorothymidine (FLT) uptake appears to be predictive of overall survival. Furthermore, changes in SUVmax over time showed a tendency to be associated with improved survival. However, further studies are necessary to investigate the ability of FLT PET imaging to discriminate between true progression and pseudoprogression in patients with glioblastoma ²⁾.