The value of 68 Gallium-DOTATATE PET/CT in sinonasal neuroendocrine tumor management: A case series

• Published in: Head & neck Vol. 43; no. 6; pp. E30 - E40
• Main Authors: Liu, Katherine Y, Goldrich, David Y, Ninan, Sen J, Filimonov, Andrey, Lam, Hansen, Govindaraj, Satish, Iloreta, Alfred Marc
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 01-06-2021
• ISSN: 1097-0347
• DOI: 10.1002/hed.26695

BACKGROUND68 Gallium-DOTATATE (68 Ga-DOTATATE) is a somatostatin analog used as a PET tracer to successfully identify neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). Due to the rarity of sinonasal NETs, there are few recommendations for 68 Ga-DOTATATE imaging in these patients. METHODSWe discussed the impact of 68 Ga-DOTATATE imaging on the management of six sinonasal NET cases and reviewed existing literature. RESULTS68 Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT revealed an unknown primary in one case and identified metastatic disease in a primary sinonasal small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (SNEC) patient missed on conventional imaging. In two esthesioneuroblastoma (ENB) patients, 68 Ga-DOTATATE detected abnormal radiotracer uptake not present on 18F-FDG PET/CT and identified a patient for treatment with 177 Lu-DOTATATE. CONCLUSIONSThis is the one of the first few reports, and the largest series to our knowledge, demonstrating the utility of 68 Ga-DOTATATE imaging for primary sinonasal SNEC and ENB. Further study is required to determine its role in sinonasal NET management.