Nuclear medicine has been implicated in the diagnosis and treatment of endocrine disorders for several decades. With recent development of PET tracers, functional imaging now plays a major role in endocrine tumors enabling with high performance to their localization, characterization, and staging. Besides 18F-FDG, which may be used in the management and follow-up of endocrine tumors, new tracers have emerged, such as 18F-DOPA for neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) (medullary thyroid carcinoma, pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas and well-differentiated NETs originating from the midgut) and 18F-Choline in the field of primary hyperparathyroidism. Moreover, some peptides such as somatostatin analogs can also be used for peptide receptor radionuclide therapy. In this context, Gallium-68 labeled somatostatin analogs (68Ga-SSA) can help to tailor therapeutic choices and follow the response to treatment in the so-called "theranostic" approach. This review emphasizes the usefulness of these three novel PET tracers (18F-Choline, 18F-FDOPA, and 68Ga-SSA) for primary hyperparathyroidism and neuroendocrine tumors.
Keywords: 18F-Choline; 18F-FDG; 18F-FDOPA; Gallium-68; Neuroendocrine tumors; PET/CT; Primary hyperparathyroidism; Somatostatin.