Several tumors overexpress somatostatin receptors (SSTR) and can thus be imaged with radiolabeled analogues of somatostatin. Tc-99m depreotide is a new radiolabeled somatostatin analogue that shows high affinity for SSTR2, SSTR3, and SSTR5 subtypes. It has been recently FDA-approved for use in the evaluation of indeterminate solitary pulmonary nodules. SPECT with Tc-99m depreotide is highly accurate in this clinical setting and may be preferable to FDG-PET because of its lower cost and wider availability. Large studies are also underway to evaluate the accuracy of Tc-99m depreotide in staging of lung cancer.
Copyright 2002, Elsevier Science.