Patients
All patients tolerated the examination well and did not report any unforeseen symptoms or adverse reactions. No drug-related pharmacologic effects or physiologic responses occurred. Thirty-seven male and forty female patients with differentiated NETs and a median age of 63 (range 24 – 86) underwent a [18F]SiTATE-PET/CT. Primary tumour locations included the small intestine (ileum n = 25, duodenum n = 2, jejunum n = 1, not specified. n = 7), large intestine (colon n = 2, appendix n = 2, rectum n = 1), pancreas (n = 27), liver (n = 1), stomach (n = 1) and primary tumour was not detectable (carcinoma of unknown primary) in n = 8 patients. Prior to PET/CT, the majority of patients were known to have hepatic (n = 51) metastases. Further metastatic sites included lymph nodes (n = 34), bone (n = 22), lung (n = 2) or peritoneal (n = 12) lesions. Most of the patients underwent surgery before (n = 45) followed by PRRT (n = 25) and chemotherapy (n = 14). Detailed patient characteristics are provided in Table 1.
Table 1: Patient characteristics. SSA, somatostatin analogue; ♂, male; ♀, female; MBq, Megabecquerel.
|
All
|
SSA+
|
SSA-
|
p-value (SSA+ vs. SSA-)
|
Sex
|
♂37 ♀40
|
♂22 ♀18
|
♂15 ♀22
|
0.256
|
Age [y] (mean ± SD)
|
62.7 ± 12.1
|
63.7 ± 10.2
|
61.6 ± 13.9
|
0.455
|
Time since initial diagnosis [m]
(mean ± SD)
|
62.3 ± 57.6
|
75.3 ± 49.5
|
48.3 ± 62.9
|
0.039
|
Ki-67 (mean ± SD) n=70
|
6.1 ± 5.3
|
5.1 ± 4.8
|
7.1 ± 5.7
|
0.127
|
Tumour-grading (G1/G2/G3) n=73
|
(25/47/1)
|
(16/23)
|
(9/24/1)
|
0.266
|
MBq (mean ± SD)
|
233 ± 36
|
240 ± 38
|
226 ± 32
|
0.069
|
Creatinin [mg/dl] (mean ± SD)
|
0.94 ± 0.26
|
0.92 ± 0.20
|
0.96 ± 0.32
|
0.612
|
Biodistribution
In line with previous studies, the radiotracer uptake in the normal organs was highest in the spleen, followed by the adrenal glands and the liver. Patients undergoing a SSA treatment showed a significantly reduced radiotracer uptake in the spleen (SUVmean 17.5 vs. 36.7, p < 0.001) and the liver (SUVmean 5.4 vs. 6.8, p < 0.001) when compared to patients without SSA treatment. On the other hand, the radiotracer uptake was significantly higher in the blood pool of patients with ongoing SSA treatment (SUVmean 1.7 vs. 1.3, p < 0.001). For details of the biodistribution in normal organs see Table 2 and Figure 1.
Table 2: Biodistribution of [18F]SiTATE in normal organs. SUV, standard uptake value.
SUVmean (mean ± SD)
|
All
|
SSA+
|
SSA-
|
p-value (SSA+ vs. SSA-)
|
Spleen
|
26.8 ± 12.9
|
17.5 ± 6.8
|
36.7 ± 10.3
|
< 0.001
|
Adrenal gland
|
13.5 ± 5.2
|
13.2 ± 5.7
|
13.7 ± 4.7
|
0.700
|
Liver
|
6.1 ± 1.8
|
5.4 ± 1.5
|
6.8 ± 1.8
|
< 0.001
|
Small intestine
|
4.6 ± 1.3
|
4.6 ± 1.4
|
4.6 ± 1.3
|
0.991
|
Blood pool
|
1.5 ± 0.5
|
1.7 ± 0.6
|
1.3 ± 0.3
|
< 0.001
|
Lung
|
0.4 ± 0.1
|
0.4 ± 0.1
|
0.3 ± 0.1
|
0.098
|
Bone
|
0.7 ± 0.2
|
0.7 ± 0.2
|
0.7 ± 0.2
|
0.400
|
Tumour uptake and tumour-to-background ratios
Overall, the radiotracer uptake (SUVmax) to primary or metastatic tumour lesions was not significantly different between patients with/ without ongoing SSA treatment. Also, tumour-to-liver and tumour-to-specific-background ratios did not significantly differ between groups. For details of both groups see Table 3 and Figure 2.
Table 3: Radiotracer uptake of [18F]SiTATE in metastatic tumour lesions. SUV, standard uptake value.
|
SSA+
|
SSA-
|
p-value (SSA+ vs. SSA-)
|
Tumour uptake (SUVmax)
|
Hottest lesion (n=77)
|
43.5 ± 32.0
|
42.3 ± 36.9
|
0.969
|
Pancreas (n=33)
|
30.9 ± 46.0
|
43.8 ± 34.0
|
0.414
|
Bowel (n=8)
|
24.4 ± 15.7
|
15.4 ± 1.6
|
0.466
|
Lymph node (n=33)
|
35.8 ± 32.3
|
20.3 ± 13.2
|
0.154
|
Liver (n=50)
|
31.2 ± 14.5
|
39.3 ± 27.2
|
0.180
|
Lung (n=3)
|
16.5 ± 11.1
|
|
|
Bone (n=26)
|
26.3 ± 40.2
|
15.1 ± 9.3
|
0.374
|
Heart (n=4)
|
12.1 ± 6.3
|
11.7
|
0.959
|
Soft tissue (n=1)
|
7.7
|
|
|
Abdominal (n=23)
|
33.2 ± 16.3
|
35.8 ± 55.4
|
0.875
|
Spleen (n=1)
|
6.6
|
|
|
Adrenal gland (n=1)
|
39.0
|
|
|
Ovar (n=1)
|
|
13.0
|
|
Tumour-to-liver-ratio (SUVmax/ SUVmean)
|
Liver (n=50)
|
6.1 ± 2.8
|
7.1 ± 5.7
|
0.430
|
Lymph node (n=33)
|
7.1 ± 6.3
|
3.4 ± 2.9
|
0.094
|
Bone (n=26)
|
4.7 ± 5.1
|
2.7 ± 1.6
|
0.229
|
Abdominal (n=23)
|
6.4 ± 3.2
|
4.9 ± 6.5
|
0.477
|
Tumour-to-specific-background-ratio (SUVmax/ SUVmean)
|
Hepatic metastasis/ Liver (n=50)
|
6.1 ± 2.8
|
7.1 ± 5.7
|
0.430
|
Lymph node metastasis/ Blood pool (n=33)
|
28.1 ± 39.0
|
18.9 ± 14.0
|
0.477
|
Osseous metastasis/ Bone (n=26)
|
40.5 ± 68.8
|
27.1 ± 18.4
|
0.538
|
Abdominal metastasis/ small intestine (n=23)
|
8.6 ± 4.7
|
9.0 ± 13.2
|
0.917
|
Individual radiotracer uptake under SSA treatment
Previous group-wise comparison suggests a reduced radiotracer uptake in normal organs but comparable tumour-to-background ratios. Figure 3 shows two exemplary patient cases that visually match those results.
Altered [18F]SiTATE uptake was time-dependent. Figure 4 shows the inter-individual correlation between liver, spleen and blood-pool SUVmean and hottest lesion SUVmax with the time after SSA injection with significant correlations for the liver and spleen radiotracer uptake (RLiver = 0.363, pLiver = 0.022; RSpleen = 0.515, pSpleen = 0.001).