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Evaluation of 68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT imaging in a large exclusive population of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors

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Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of 68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT imaging in a large exclusive population of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (NETs).

Methods

Data of 141 (mean age 46.2 ± 15.2 years) patients who underwent 178 68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT studies for diagnosis/staging (n = 88) and restaging (n = 90) of pancreatic NET were retrospectively analyzed. PET/CT results were compared to conventional imaging (CIM) when available (n = 86). Histopathology and/or clinical/imaging follow-up (minimum 6 months) were used as reference standard.

Results

The overall sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT were 85.7%, 79.1%, and 84.8%. The corresponding values were 73%, 50%, and 70.4% for diagnosis/staging groups and 98.6%, 100%, and 98.8% for restaging groups. The accuracy was significantly higher for restaging as compared to diagnosis/staging (P < 0.0001) and in non-insulinoma tumors than insulinomas (P < 0.0001). The SUVmax of primary tumors was significantly higher than metastatic lesions overall (P = 0.001), as well as in diagnosis/staging (P = 0.041) and restaging (P = 0.0003) subgroups. When available, CIM was less specific than 68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT (P < 0.001) and showed fewer lesions.

Conclusions

68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT is useful for diagnosis/staging and restaging of patients with pancreatic NET. It demonstrates more lesions compared to CIM and is more specific.

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Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank Dr. Prashant Durgapal, Department of Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, for proving the pathology images.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine and PET/CT, Eastern Diagnostics India Ltd., Kolkata, India

    Punit Sharma

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, 110029, India

    Punit Sharma, Saurabh Arora, Varun Singh Dhull, Niraj Naswa, Rakesh Kumar & Chandrasekhar Bal

  3. Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

    Ariachery C. Ammini

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  1. Punit Sharma
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  2. Saurabh Arora
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  3. Varun Singh Dhull
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  4. Niraj Naswa
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  7. Chandrasekhar Bal
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Correspondence to Chandrasekhar Bal.

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Sharma, P., Arora, S., Dhull, V.S. et al. Evaluation of 68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT imaging in a large exclusive population of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Abdom Imaging 40, 299–309 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-014-0219-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-014-0219-5

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