Comparison of different positron emission tomography tracers in patients with recurrent medullary thyroid carcinoma: our experience and a review of the literature.
Several morphological and functional imaging techniques are usually used to detect residual/recurrent medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) with variable results; currently, there is growing interest in positron emission tomography (PET) methodology. Herein, we report our experience of and a literature review about the comparison of different positron emission tomography (PET) tracers in patients with residual/recurrent MTC. (18)F-DOPA PET/CT seems to be the most useful imaging method to detect recurrent MTC lesions, performing better than (18)F-FDG and (68)Ga-somatostatin analogs PET/CT. (18)F-FDG may complement (18)F-DOPA in patients with aggressive tumors. (68)Ga-somatostatin analogs PET/CT may be useful to select patients who could benefit from radioreceptor therapy. The information provided by the various PET tracers reflects different metabolic pathways, and may help to select the most appropriate treatment.
Institute of Nuclear Medicine, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy. giorgiomednuc@libero.it
Giorgio
G
Treglia
Paola
P
Castaldi
Maria Felicia
MF
Villani
Germano
G
Perotti
Angelina
A
Filice
Valentina
V
Ambrosini
Nadia
N
Cremonini
Annibale
A
Versari
Stefano
S
Fanti
Alessandro
A
Giordano
Vittoria
V
Rufini
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018278:Carcinoma, Neuroendocrine; D004295:Dihydroxyphenylalanine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; C043437:fluorodopa F 18; D004295:Dihydroxyphenylalanine