• Rakesh Kumar, Punit Sharma, Pramod Garg, Sellam Karunanithi, Niraj Naswa, Raju Sharma, Sanjay Thulkar, Sneh Lata, and Arun Malhotra.
• Department of Nuclear Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, E-81, Ansari Nagar (east), AIIMS Campus, New Delhi 110029, India. rkphulia@yahoo.com
• Eur Radiol. 2011 Nov 1; 21 (11): 2408-16.

ObjectiveThe objective of the present study was to evaluate the role of (68)Ga-DOTA(0)-Phe(1)-Tyr(3)-octreotide ((68)Ga-DOTATOC) positron emission tomography computed tomography (PET-CT) for detection and staging of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (NETs).MethodsTwenty patients with clinically suspected and/or histopathologically proven pancreatic NET underwent (68)Ga-DOTATOC PET-CT imaging for staging and /or localisation of primary lesion. They also underwent contrast enhanced CT (CECT) and 8 patients underwent (18)F-FDG PET-CT. SUVmax of primary and metastatic lesions were measured. Results were verified with histopathology for primary tumour and with clinical follow up/MRI and /or biopsy for metastatic disease. Results of (68)Ga-DOTATOC PET-CT were compared to CECT and (18)F-FDG PET-CT.Results(68)Ga-DOTATOC PET-CT correctly localised primary in all 20, CECT in 15 and (18)F-FDG PET-CT in 2 patients. (68)Ga-DOTATOC PET-CT demonstrated metastases in 13 patients, CECT in 7 and (18)F-FDG PET-CT in 2. (68)Ga-DOTATOC PET-CT emerged as the best investigation with 100% sensitivity and PPV for detecting primary tumour and metastatic disease. The detection rate of CECT was lower than (68)Ga-DOTATOC PET-CT, both for primary tumour (20vs.15) or metastatic disease (13vs.7). (18)F-FDG PET-CT performed poorly for primary and metastasis.ConclusionGa-DOTATOC PET-CT is a very useful imaging investigation for diagnosing and staging pancreatic NET.

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