Ga-DOTATATE-PET shows promise for diagnosis of recurrent or persistent medullary thyroid cancer: A systematic review.

BACKGROUND

Many patients with Medullary Thyroid Cancer (MTC) will have persistent or recurrent disease after surgery requiring lifelong surveillance with imaging and tumor markers. The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of Ga-DOTATATE-PET (or Ga labelled equivalent radiopharmaceutical) versus F-FDG-PET for detecting persistent and/or metastatic recurrent MTC.

METHODS

Relevant studies were identified by conducting searches in Embase and PubMed and five studies were included in the final review.

RESULTS

Five studies investigated per-patient sensitivity of F-FDG-PET and Ga-DOTATATE-PET in MTC patients. Four studies investigated the correlation between calcitonin and number of lesions detected by F-FDG-PET and Ga-DOTATATE-PET, and three investigated the correlation between CEA and number of lesions detected by F-FDG-PET and Ga-DOTATATE-PET. There was no significant difference in number of lesions detected by F-FDG -PET compared with Ga-DOTATATE-PET.

CONCLUSIONS

When compared directly to F-FDG-PET, there is a general trend towards favoring Ga-DOTATATE-PET in per-patient sensitivities, and incidence of lesion detection.