Detection rate of somatostatin receptor PET in patients with recurrent medullary thyroid carcinoma: a systematic review and a meta-analysis

摘要

PURPOSE: Several articles have demonstrated the high diagnostic performance of somatostatinreceptor positron emission tomography (PET) in patients with neuroendocrine tumours (NETs).On the other hand, only a few studies have evaluated the detection rate (DR) of this imagingmethod in recurrent medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC). We aimed to perform a systematicreview and a meta-analysis of the DR of somatostatin receptor PET or PET/CT in patients withrecurrent MTC to add evidence-based data to this setting. METHO DS: A comprehensive computerliterature search of studies published in PubMed/MEDLINE and the Cochrane LibraryDatabase through May 2017 and regarding somatostatin receptor PET or PET/CT in patientswith recurrent MTC was carried out. DR was determined on a per patient-basis. A sub-analysisconsidering serum calcitonin (Ctn) values was also performed. RESULTS: Nine studies on thediagnostic performance of somatostatin receptor PET or PET/CT in detecting recurrent MTCwere discussed in the systematic review. The meta-analysis of these selected studies provided thefollowing DR on a per patient-based analysis: 63.5% [95% confidence interval (95%CI): 49-77].Heterogeneity among the selected studies was found. DR of somatostatin receptor PET or PET/CT increased in patients with higher serum Ctn levels (83% for Ctn >500 ng/L). CON CLUSIONS:In patients with recurrent MTC, somatostatin receptor PET or PET/CT demonstrateda non-optimal DR which increased in patients with higher serum Ctn values. The diagnosticperformance of somatostatin receptor PET or PET/CT in recurrent MTC is lower comparedto that of the same imaging method in the majority of NETs.