Application status and progress of PET/CT in neuroendocrine tumors

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are a group of heterogeneous tumors, ¹⁸F-FDG is not an ideal tracer for NETs. Most of the NETs are well-differentiated, slow growth, low levels of glucose metabolism. ¹⁸F-FDG PET usually show high sensitivity for poorly-differentiated and invasive neuroendocrine carcinoma. Other pro-amine PET agents such as ¹¹C-5-hydroxytryptophan, ¹⁸F-fluoro-dopa, ¹⁸F-dopa and ¹¹C-dopa have great values for the diagnosis of carcinoid, islet cell carcinoma, pheochromocytoma, paraganglioma, medullary thyroid carcinoma, hyperinsulinemia and other solid NETs. Some new developed ⁶⁸Ga-DOTA-peptide1, 4, 7, 10-tetraazacyclododecane-N, N′, N″, N″′-tetraacetic acid(DOTA) somatostatin PET tracers had already been used in NETs diagnosis and peptide receptor radionuclide therapy. The preliminary results show that ⁶⁸Ga-DOTA-peptide PET/CT can improve the course and treatment program design in more than half of NETs patients, which is a promising NETs imaging mode.