Endocrine Abstracts

Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are distinctive tumours which arise from cells which have neural and hormonal origins. Gastroenteropancreatic tumours (GEP) are the most common clinically encountered NETs. Imaging has a lead role in the evaluation of these tumours – detection, staging and follow-up. It is also known that PET–CT with ¹⁸F-FDG has a limited value in well-differentiated NETs. This study was performed to evaluate the clinical value of ¹⁸F-FDG PET–CT in assessing functioning and non-functioning NETs. From September 2008 to August 2019, a retrospective observational study of patients (31 cases) with GEP-NETs from University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire underwent ¹⁸F-FDG PET–CT scan. Demographics and clinical characteristics were retrospectively collected and analysed. Therefore, 31 patients (16 females, 15 males), the average age of 64±11.7 years were scanned in the GE Discovery PET–CT 710 using a standard protocol (Boellaard et al., 2015). From the 31 patients, there are 20 patients with non-functioning and 11 patients with functioning NETs. The functional tumours show the following SUV_max values for T, N and M of 7.23±3.81 g/ml, 8.70±7.06 g/ml and 10.43±7.62 g/ml, respectively. On the other hand, non-functional NETs present a SUV_max for T, N and M of 7.54±2.52 g/ml, 7.24±3.57 g/ml and 7.20±7.62 g/ml. The differences evaluated in the N and M staging have significant value (P<0.005). In addition, ¹⁸F-FDG uptake had a significant association with tumour size (P<0.005) and Ki-67 index (P<0.005). The evaluation of the ¹⁸F-FDG PET–CT scan has changed the management in 9 of the 31 cases (29%). In conclusion, PET–CT with ¹⁸F-FDG has an important role in detecting and contributing to the staging of functional and non-functional NETs.