Evaluation of 68Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT-enterography for the Detection of the Primary Lesion in Neuroendocrine Tumors of the Small Bowel

The neuroendocrine neoplasms of the small intestine (Si-NENs) is a relatively rare malignancy. Surgical resection is the only curative treatment for the early-stage. It remains controversial its application for advanced metastatic gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP-NETs).

The identification of metastatic disease and tumor grade are the most important prognostic factors in advanced GEPNETs. Therefore, precise staging and evaluation of disease burden with a reliable imaging method is crucial for determining the correct stage of the disease and consequently the correct treatment.

A unique feature of NeuroEndocrinal Tumors (NETs) is the expression of somatostatin receptors (SSTR) which can be targeted with radiolabeled peptides for imaging.

The Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography (PET/CT) technique using somatostatin analogs labeled with the positron emitting isotope, 68Ga (68Ga-DOTA peptides), has been shown to offer advantages over conventional imaging modalities as well as additional important quantitative and qualitative diagnostic information.

The aim of this study is to calculate the sensitivity (SE), the specificity (SP), the positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) and the overall accuracy of 68Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT-enterography in detecting in primary lesion and multifocality of siNETs.