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Somatostatin receptor expression in non-classical locations – clinical relevance?

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Abstract

In-111 pentetreotide (Octreoscan) is a radiolabeled somatostatin analog with high binding affinity to somatostatin receptors (SSTR) used in somatostatin receptor scintigraphy (SRS). Pentetreotide labelled with In-111 is widely used due to its high affinity to SSTR 2 and 5. SSTR are expressed on neuroendocrine cells as well as several non-neural and non-endocrine cells with varying levels of density. We retrospectively reviewed articles and publications related to octreoscan accumulation in sites that classically do not have high concentrations of SSTR as well as in organs and tissues from diseases which are not usually diagnosed by octreoscan. The significance of a positive uptake as assessed by octreoscan in non-somatostatin receptor related diseases is not fully understood yet. Localization of octreotide in non-oncological disease states such as inflammation is due to presence of SSTR in activated immunological cells, over-expression by activated cells in the respective tissue and SSTR expression by blood vessels. In granulomatous diseases, over-expression of SSTR2 preferential binding sites were detected in epitheloid and giant cells. The purpose of the current study is to identify octreoscan localization in non-somatostatin receptor related disease sites to better understand the mechanism of this nonspecific accumulation which may help expand the clinical utilization of functional imaging utilizing somatostatin receptor scintigraphy in diagnosis and perhaps therapy.

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Acknowledgements

Some of the figure material has been presented in poster form at international meetings, for instance, Vijayakumar V, Koch CA. Update on the role of nuclear medicine in the diagnosis and therapy of patients with pheochromocytoma. The 41st annual scientific meeting ANZ SNM, Darwin Australia, July 17, poster P-80, Internal Medicine Journal, July 2011, Vol. 41, Suppl 3, 43.

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Correspondence to Vani Vijayakumar.

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Prof. Christian Koch declares that he has no conflict of interest related to this article. He has served as consultant on the Advisory Board of Novartis and Ipsen related to acromegaly and neuroendocrine tumors. He also is investigator of the observational study CSOM230B2410 Signifor. The remaining authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Bhanat, E., Koch, C.A., Parmar, R. et al. Somatostatin receptor expression in non-classical locations – clinical relevance?. Rev Endocr Metab Disord 19, 123–132 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11154-018-9470-3

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