Cutting-Edge Imaging of Cardiac Metastases from Neuroendocrine Tumors: Lesson from a Case Series

Abstract

With the increasing availability of high-performance medical imaging for the management of patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), a progressive growth of asymptomatic and incidentally detected cardiac metastases (CMs) has been observed in the recent years. In clinical practice, CMs of NENs are often incidentally detected by whole-body 68Ga-labeled somatostatin analogs or 18F-fluorodihydroxyphenylalanine positron emission tomography/computed tomography, and afterwards accurately characterized by cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and/or gated cardiac computed tomography when CMR is contraindicated or not available. The interpreting physician should familiarize with the main imaging features of CM, a finding that may be encountered in NETs patients more than previously thought. Herein, we present a case series of four patients with CMs from small-intestine NETs highlighting strengths and weaknesses of a multimodality imaging approach in clinical practice.

Keywords

• neuroendocrine
• cardiac metastasis
• positron emission tomography
• ⁶⁸Ga-DOTATOC
• ¹⁸F-DOPA
• cardiac magnetic resonance