Scientific Reports (Mar 2021)

Prospective study of dynamic whole-body 68Ga-DOTATOC-PET/CT acquisition in patients with well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors

  • Philippe Thuillier,
  • David Bourhis,
  • Jean Philippe Metges,
  • Romain Le Pennec,
  • Karim Amrane,
  • Ulrike Schick,
  • Frédérique Blanc-Beguin,
  • Simon Hennebicq,
  • Pierre-Yves Salaun,
  • Véronique Kerlan,
  • Nicolas Karakatsanis,
  • Ronan Abgral

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-83965-9
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 15

Abstract

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Abstract To present the feasibility of a dynamic whole-body (DWB) 68Ga-DOTATOC-PET/CT acquisition in patients with well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors (WD-NETs). Sixty-one patients who underwent a DWB 68Ga-DOTATOC-PET/CT for a histologically proven/highly suspected WD-NET were prospectively included. The acquisition consisted in single-bed dynamic acquisition centered on the heart, followed by the DWB and static acquisitions. For liver, spleen and tumor (1–5/patient), Ki values (in ml/min/100 ml) were calculated according to Patlak's analysis and tumor-to-liver (TLR-Ki) and tumor-to-spleen ratios (TSR-Ki) were recorded. Ki-based parameters were compared to static parameters (SUVmax/SUVmean, TLR/TSRmean, according to liver/spleen SUVmean), in the whole-cohort and according to the PET system (analog/digital). A correlation analysis between SUVmean/Ki was performed using linear and non-linear regressions. Ki-liver was not influenced by the PET system used, unlike SUVmax/SUVmean. The regression analysis showed a non-linear relation between Ki/SUVmean (R2 = 0.55,0.68 and 0.71 for liver, spleen and tumor uptake, respectively) and a linear relation between TLRmean/TLR-Ki (R2 = 0.75). These results were not affected by the PET system, on the contrary of the relation between TSRmean/TSR-Ki (R2 = 0.94 and 0.73 using linear and non-linear regressions in digital and analog systems, respectively). Our study is the first showing the feasibility of a DWB 68Ga-DOTATOC-PET/CT acquisition in WD-NETs.