64Cu-DOTATATE PET/CT and Prediction of Overall and Progression-Free Survival in Patients with Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Overexpression of somatostatin receptors in patients with neuroendocrine neoplasms (NEN) is utilized for both diagnosis and treatment. Receptor density may reflect tumor differentiation and thus be associated with prognosis. Non-invasive visualization and quantification of somatostatin receptor density is possible by somatostatin receptor imaging (SRI) using positron emission tomography (PET). Recently, we introduced 64Cu-DOTATATE for SRI and we hypothesized that uptake of this tracer could be associated with overall (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Methods: We evaluated patients with NEN that had a 64Cu-DOTATATE PET/CT SRI performed in two prospective studies. Tracer uptake was determined as the maximal standardized uptake value (SUVmax) for each patient. Kaplan-Meier analysis with log-rank was used to determine the predictive value of 64Cu-DOTATATE SUVmax for OS and PFS. Specificity, sensitivity and accuracy was calculated for prediction of outcome at 24 months after 64Cu-DOTATATE PET/CT. Results: A total of 128 patients with NEN were included and followed for a median of 73 (1-112) months. During follow-up, 112 experienced disease progression and 69 patients died. The optimal cutoff for 64Cu-DOTATATE SUVmax was 43.3 for prediction of PFS with a hazard ratio of 0.56 (95% CI: 0.38-0.84) for patients with SUVmax > 43.3. However, no significant cutoff was found for prediction of OS. In multiple Cox regression adjusted for age, sex, primary tumor site and tumor grade, the SUVmax cutoff hazard ratio was 0.50 (0.32-0.77) for PFS. The accuracy was moderate for predicting PFS (57%) at 24 months after 64Cu-DOTATATE PET/CT. Conclusion: In this first study to report the association of 64Cu-DOTATATE PET/CT and outcome in patients with NEN, tumor somatostatin receptor density visualized with 64Cu-DOTATATE PET/CT was prognostic for PFS but not OS. However, the accuracy of prediction of PFS at 24 months after 64Cu-DOTATATE PET/CT SRI was moderate limiting the value on an individual patient basis.

Original languageEnglish
JournalThe Journal of Nuclear Medicine
Volume61
Issue number10
Pages (from-to)1491-1497
ISSN0161-5505
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

ID: 247890395