Tumor Oxygen Tension: Measurement Using Oxygent™ as A¹⁹F NMR Probe AT 4.7 T

Abstract

We have used Oxygent™ (an emulsion of perflubron [PFOB]) to measure pO₂ in a Dunning prostatic adenocarcinoma non-invasively using ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy. We have confirmed a linear relationship between the spin-lattice relaxation rate (R1) and pO₂ and we have assessed the effect of temperature. Ri of the individual resonances of Oxygent is considerably more sensitive to changes in pO₂ than other PFC emulsions, whilst being considerably less sensitive to interference from temperature variation. Oxygent has two well resolved resonances (Δδ ∼ 18ppm) and these were both exploited to estimate tumor pO₂= 47±5 torr.