Purpose: Over recent decades interest in diagnosis and treatment of neuroendocrine tumours (NET) has steadily grown. The basis for diagnosis and therapy of NET with radiolabelled somatostatin (hsst) analogues is the variable overexpression of hsst receptors (hsst1-5 receptors). We hypothesized that radiometal derivatives of DOTA-iodo-Tyr(3)-octreotide analogues might be excellent candidates for somatostatin receptor imaging. We therefore explored the diagnostic potential of (68)Ga-DOTA-iodo-Tyr(3)-octreotate [(68)Ga-DOTA,3-iodo-Tyr(3),Thr(8)]octreotide ((68)Ga-HA-DOTATATE; HA, high-affinity) compared to the established (68)Ga-DOTA-Tyr(3)-octreotate ((68)Ga-DOTATATE) in vivo.
Methods: The study included 23 patients with known somatostatin receptor-positive metastases from NETs, thyroid cancer or glomus tumours who were investigated with both (68)Ga-HA-DOTATATE and (68)Ga-DOTATATE. A patient-based and a lesion-based comparative analysis was carried out of normal tissue distribution and lesion detectability in a qualitative and a semiquantitative manner.
Results: (68)Ga-HA-DOTATATE and (68)Ga-DOTATATE showed comparable uptake in the liver (SUVmean 8.9 ± 2.2 vs. 9.3 ± 2.5, n.s.), renal cortex (SUVmean 13.3 ± 3.9 vs. 14.5 ± 3.7, n.s.) and spleen (SUVmean 24.0 ± 6.7 vs. 22.9 ± 7.3, n.s.). A somewhat higher pituitary uptake was found with (68)Ga-HA-DOTATATE (SUVmean 6.3 ± 1.8 vs. 5.4 ± 2.1, p < 0.05). On a lesion-by-lesion basis a total of 344 lesions were detected. (68)Ga-HA-DOTATATE demonstrated 328 lesions (95.3% of total lesions seen), and (68)Ga-DOTATATE demonstrated 332 lesions (96.4%). The mean SUVmax of all lesions was not significantly different between (68)Ga-HA-DOTATATE and (68)Ga-DOTATATE (17.8 ± 11.4 vs. 16.7 ± 10.7, n.s.).
Conclusion: Our analysis demonstrated very good concordance between (68)Ga-HA-DOTATATE and (68)Ga-DOTATATE PET data. As the availability and use of (68)Ga-HA-DOTATATE is not governed by patent restrictions it may be an attractive alternative to other (68)Ga-labelled hsst analogues.