EANM practice guideline for PET/CT imaging in medullary thyroid carcinoma.

BACKGROUND

Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) is a malignant tumour derived from the para-follicular thyroid C cells. It may occur in sporadic or hereditary forms and surgery represent the primary cure.

METHODS

Ultrasound examination and, in selected cases, cross-sectional anatomic imaging procedures, are adopted to stage the disease before primary surgery while different anatomic/morphologic and functional/molecular imaging procedures can be adopted in detecting persistent/recurrent disease. Positron emitting radiopharmaceuticals including fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG), fluorine-18 dihydroxyphenylalanine (F-FDOPA) and somatostatin analogues labelled with gallium-68 (Ga-SSA) tracks different metabolic pathways or receptor expression/functioning, and proved to be useful in detecting MTC recurrences/metastasis.

CONCLUSIONS

This practice guideline from the Thyroid Committee of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM), with involvement of external experts, provides recommendations based on updated literature's evidences. The purpose of this practice guideline is to assist imaging specialists and clinicians in recommending, performing and interpreting the results of PET/CT with various radiopharmaceuticals in patients with MTC.