Surgery is the only definitive therapy for gastro-entero-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs), and achieving complete tumor resection is an important prognostic factor. Radiopharmaceuticals such as 68Ga-DOTA peptides have been developed that offer superior accuracy for localization of GEPNETs. The study aim was to determine the feasibility of radio-guided surgery (RGS) using 68Ga-DOTATATE in patients with primary and recurrent GEPNETs.
Fourteen patients with GEPNETs were enrolled onto a prospective study to determine the feasibility of RGS with 68Ga-DOTATATE. Findings from preoperative imaging, intraoperative exploration, RGS, and pathology were analyzed.
The median decay corrected target count rate was 172.6 (range 28.15–2341) for tumors, with a tumor-to-background ratio (TBR) of 4.46 (range 1.6–43.56). The median lesion size was 1.55 (range 0.5–15) cm. There was no significant correlation between preoperative imaging maximum standardized uptake value (SUV max) of the lesions and TBR (Spearman r = − 0.01, p = 0.9), TBR and tumor size (Spearman r = 0.29, p = 0.14), and SUV max and tumor size (Spearman r = 0.22, p = 0.28). The probe showed correct identification for gastric and small intestine neuroendocrine tumor (NET), including lymph node metastasis in 17 (81.0 %) of 21 cases, with a median TBR of 3.5 (1.6–40.2). For pancreatic NETs and lymph node metastasis, 16 (66.7 %) of 24 were correctly identified by RGS.