Diagnostic value of 99m Tc-HYNIC-TOC SPECT/CT imaging for neuroendocrine neoplasms

Abstract

Objective To investigate the value of 99mTc-HYNIC-TOC imaging in the location determination, staging and selecting clinical treatment for neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs). Methods Fifty-seven patients with suspected NENs who were hospitalized in the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from September 2016 to April 2019 were examined by 99mTc-HYNIC-TOC imaging. Among the selected patients, 15 cases were highly differentiated NENs, 18 cases were moderately differentiated NENs, and 24 cases were poorly differentiated NENs. 99mTc-HYNIC-TOC was injected intravenously into all patients, with a dose of about 350 to 400 MBq per person. Anterior-posterior and posterior-anterior whole body plane imaging were performed at 0.5 h on all patient after injection; while two diamentional and tomographic imaging was performed at 4.0 h after injection. Results Among the 57 patients with NENs, 49 cases showed positive imaging results of 99mTc-HYNIC-TOC, including 14 cases of high differentiation, 17 cases of medium differentiation and 18 cases of low differentiation. Conclusions 99mTc-HYNIC-TOC imaging can achieve early specific targeted diagnosis of highly differentiated NENs, and indirectly provide tumor cell heterogeneity information by showing the expression of somatostatin receptor. And its semi-quantitative analysis is helpful for understanding the differentiation degree of NENs. Key words: Endocrine adenoma; Somatostatin; Receptor; Radionuclide imaging