Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2013) 32 P1089 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.32.P1089

ECE2013 Poster Presentations Thyroid cancer (64 abstracts)

68Ga-DOTA-NOC PET/CT role in the follow-up of patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma

Joana Couto 1 , Raquel Martins 1 , Inês Lucena 1 , Joana Menezes 2 , Ana Paula Santos 1 , Elisabete Rodrigues 2 , Hugo Duarte 1 & Isabel Torres 1


1Portuguese Institute of Oncology, Porto, Portugal; 2Centro Hospitalar de São João, Porto, Portugal.


Introduction: About 50% of patients with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) have persistent or recurrent disease after surgery.

For a calcitonin (ct) value greater than 150 pg/ml, it is suggested by international guidelines performing additional imaging exams (AIE) for evaluating the presence of distant metastasis. It is often difficult to assess the presence of nodal disease and secondary liver lesions (often miliary) by ‘morphological’ imaging (MI).

Objectives: To evaluate the role of 68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT in the detection of residual disease or recurrence/metastatic lesions in patients with biochemical evidence of recurrence or persistence of CMT.

Methods: Retrospective study of patients diagnosed with MTC who underwent surgery and performed 68GaDOTANOC PET/CT at our institution between August 2010 and March 2012.

Results: Twenty-three patients, 16 (69.6%) females, aged between 26 and 78 years (median 54). 68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT was performed from 4 months to 21 years, after the initial diagnosis of CMT (median 5 years). The main reasons for the exam’s request were high ct and/or no evidence of disease in conventional AIE and to evaluate the extent of the disease. In 65.2% of cases, ct value was >150 pg/ml. The exam revealed lesions in 12 cases (52.2%) and all of these had ct levels >150 pg/dl. Among 12 patients with previous negative MI, 68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT showed evidence of disease in five cases (42%). It provided additional information to MI in four cases.

Conclusions: In our series, 68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT provided additional information in about 39% of cases. These results support the important role that 68Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT may have in the follow-up of CMT patients, particularly those with significantly high ct values. It could even select potential candidates for PRRT therapy.

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