TY - JOUR T1 - Incidence of Increased <sup>68</sup>Ga-DOTANOC Uptake in the Pancreatic Head in a Large Series of Extrapancreatic NET Patients Studied with Sequential PET/CT JF - Journal of Nuclear Medicine JO - J Nucl Med SP - 886 LP - 890 DO - 10.2967/jnumed.111.088328 VL - 52 IS - 6 AU - Paolo Castellucci AU - Javier Pou Ucha AU - Chiara Fuccio AU - Domenico Rubello AU - Valentina Ambrosini AU - Gian Carlo Montini AU - Vincenzina Pettinato AU - Claudio Malizia AU - Filippo Lodi AU - Stefano Fanti Y1 - 2011/06/01 UR - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/52/6/886.abstract N2 - The aim of our retrospective study was to assess the incidence of increased uptake of 68Ga-DOTANOC in the head of the pancreas among a large population of patients with extrapancreatic neuroendocrine tumors studied with serial 68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT. Methods: Patients who had undergone at least two 68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT studies over time were included. Uptake in the head of the pancreas was measured and compared with uptake in normal liver parenchyma (target-to-liver ratio). Patients were followed up for 6–24 mo. Results: We reviewed 245 studies performed on 100 patients and classified the pancreatic uptake as either diffuse or focal. Twenty-three patients (66 scans) showed diffuse uptake; 8 patients (16 scans) showed focal uptake. None of these 31 patients had negative findings on their subsequent scans, and vice versa. During follow-up, localization of neuroendocrine tumors in the pancreas was not suspected in any patient. Conclusion: Focal and diffuse uptake of 68Ga-DOTANOC in the head of the pancreas occurred, respectively, in 23% and 8% of the patients. The main finding of our study was that increased pancreatic uptake was stable over time. ER -