The Correlation Between [68Ga]DOTATATE PET/CT and Cell Proliferation in Patients With GEP-NENs

Mol Imaging Biol. 2019 Oct;21(5):984-990. doi: 10.1007/s11307-019-01328-3.

Abstract

Purpose: Objectives of the study are to analyze the correlation between [68Ga]DOTATATE positron emission tomography (PET)/X-ray computed tomography (CT) measurements and various biological characteristics of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (GEP-NENs), and to determine optimal cutoff value of SUVmax (standard uptake value) to differentiate neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and neuroendocrine cancers (NECs).

Procedures: Of the GEP-NEN cases (73 males, 53 females; age 18-77 years) with pathologically proven primary and/or metastatic lesions, 126 were studied. All of the short axes of lesions were larger than 0.5 cm in order to avoid the partial volume effect. Patients fasted for 6 h before the PET/CT scans. The dose of [68Ga]DOTATATE was 100-200 MBq and the acquisition began at 1 h after injection. The lesion with the highest SUVmax in each patient was analyzed.

Results: In the total sample, the sensitivity of [68Ga]DOTATATE was 69.05 %. The sensitivities were significantly different among G1, G2, and G3 groups (72.22 %, 91.53 %, and 40.82 %, respectively; p < 0.01). The SUVmax of the G3 group was lowest. We also found that the sensitivity and SUVmax were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in patients with pancreatic NENs (Pan-NENs) than in patients with gastrointestinal NENs (Gi-NENs) and unknown primary NENs (Up-NENs). A significant negative correlation between SUVmax and Ki-67 was found (r = - 0.429, p < 0.01). Using SUVmax to differentiate neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and neuroendocrine cancers (NECs), the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.771 and the cutoff value of SUVmax was 11.25 (sensitivity 79.2 %, specificity 65.3 %). However, Pan-NENs did not show any statistical significance results in correlation and ROC analysis.

Conclusion: [68Ga]DOTATATE PET/CT results showed a negative correlation with GEP-NEN cell proliferation and were complementary to Ki-67. Pan-NENs were different from Gi-NENs and Up-NENs when compared to somatostatin receptor expression.

Keywords: Cell proliferation; Neuroendocrine tumor; PET/CT; Somatostatin receptor; [68Ga]DOTATATE.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Area Under Curve
  • Cell Proliferation
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Intestinal Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging*
  • Intestinal Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Ki-67 Antigen / metabolism
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neuroendocrine Tumors / diagnostic imaging*
  • Neuroendocrine Tumors / pathology*
  • Organometallic Compounds / chemistry*
  • Organometallic Compounds / pharmacokinetics
  • Pancreatic Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging*
  • Pancreatic Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography*
  • Stomach Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging*
  • Stomach Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Ki-67 Antigen
  • Organometallic Compounds
  • gallium Ga 68 dotatate

Supplementary concepts

  • Gastro-enteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumor