Fluorine-18-labeled androgens: Radiochemical synthesis and tissue distribution studies on six fluorine-substituted androgens, potential imaging agents for prostatic cancer

We have synthesized six androgens labeled with ¹⁸F as potential imaging agents for prostatic cancer. These include 16β-fluorine-substituted testosterone, dihydrotestosterone and mibolerone, 16α- and 16β-fluorine substituted 7α-methyl-19-nortestosterone, and 20-fluoro-R1881 (metribolone). All of the radiochemical preparations proceeded in satisfactory yield, giving material with adequately high effective specific activity for the in vivo studies. In the tissue distribution studies in diethylstilbestrol-treated male rats, high selective uptake by the prostate was observed that ranged from 0.39% to 1.21% injected dose (ID)/g at 1 hr and 0.20 to 0.47 at 4 hr, with prostate-to-blood and prostate-to-muscle ratios ranging from 3.28 to 9.45, respectively, at 1 hr and 4.06 to 35.0, respectively, at 4 hr. Those compounds that are likely to be metabolized rapidly showed lower prostate uptake but higher uptake selectivity at 4 hr; at earlier times, uptake selectivities were more comparable. Compounds with a 16β-fluorine substituent showed extensive metabolic defluorination, resulting in ca. 50% of the dose being deposited in bone at 4 hr. This is consistent with a 16α- hydroxylation process that may proceed rapidly with these compounds, but would be retarded by a 17α-methylation, blocked by inversion of stereochemistry at C-16, and would not affect fluorine at the C-20 position. These fluoroandrogens, together with 20-fluoromibolerone described previously, are the first positron-emitting androgens to show high affinity and selective uptake by androgen target tissues in vivo, and they may be useful as in vivo prostate imaging agents in man.