Preoperative (68)Ga-DOTA-Somatostatin Analog-PET/CT Hybrid Imaging Increases Detection Rate of Intra-abdominal Small Intestinal Neuroendocrine Tumor Lesions

What Was Tested

This observational study looks at Somatostatin.

The aim was to determine detection rates of PT and peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) with 68Ga-DOTATOC/TATE-PET/CT in comparison with i.v. contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CE-CT) and thus to clarify whether modern functional imaging can mitigate the need for palpation of bowel during surgery enabling oncologically adequate laparoscopic resection.

Why It Was Studied

Small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors (SI-NETs) are the most common form of neoplasm in the small bowel.

Radiological identification of primary tumors (PT), which may be multiple, is difficult, and therefore palpation of the entire small bowel is routinely performed during laparotomy.

Who Took Part

The study group was 28 patients.

The age groups tagged for this paper are young adults, adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

A total of 28 patients with SI-NET who preoperatively underwent both 68Ga-DOTATOC/TATE-PET/CT and CE-CT were included.

How the Study Was Run

The detection rates of PT and PC for PET/CT and CE-CT were compared to the findings in the surgical and histopathological reports.

What Was Measured

Small intestinal neuroendocrine tumors (SI-NETs) are the most common form of neoplasm in the small bowel.

Radiological identification of primary tumors (PT), which may be multiple, is difficult, and therefore palpation of the entire small bowel is routinely performed during laparotomy.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Contrast Media, Gallium Radioisotopes, Intestinal Neoplasms, Intestine, Small, Neuroendocrine Tumors, Organometallic Compounds and Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is an observational study of Somatostatin in 28 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2018 (World journal of surgery), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Somatostatin compound page, all human trials.