The evidence-based role of catecholaminergic PET tracers in Neuroblastoma. A systematic review and a head-to-head comparison with mIBG scintigraphy
Background Molecular imaging is pivotal in staging and response assessment of children with neuroblastoma (NB). [ 123 I]-metaiodobenzylguanidine (mIBG) is the standard imaging method; however, it is characterised by low spatial resolution, time-consuming acquisition procedures and difficult interpre...
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Published in | European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging Vol. 51; no. 3; pp. 756 - 767 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Berlin/Heidelberg
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
01.02.2024
Springer Nature B.V |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Background
Molecular imaging is pivotal in staging and response assessment of children with neuroblastoma (NB). [
123
I]-metaiodobenzylguanidine (mIBG) is the standard imaging method; however, it is characterised by low spatial resolution, time-consuming acquisition procedures and difficult interpretation. Many PET catecholaminergic radiotracers have been proposed as a replacement for [
123
I]-mIBG, however they have not yet made it into clinical practice. We aimed to review the available literature comparing head-to-head [
123
I]-mIBG with the most common PET catecholaminergic radiopharmaceuticals.
Methods
We searched the PubMed database for studies performing a head-to-head comparison between [
123
I]-mIBG and PET radiopharmaceuticals including meta-hydroxyephedrine ([
11
C]C-HED),
18
F-18F-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine ([
18
F]DOPA) [
124
I]mIBG and
Meta
-[18F]fluorobenzylguanidine ([
18
F]mFBG). Review articles, preclinical studies, small case series (< 5 subjects), case reports, and articles not in English were excluded. From each study, the following characteristics were extracted: bibliographic information, technical parameters, and the sensitivity of the procedure according to a patient-based analysis (PBA) and a lesion-based analysis (LBA).
Results
Ten studies were selected: two regarding [
11
C]C-HED, four [
18
F]DOPA, one [
124
I]mIBG, and three [
18
F]mFBG. These studies included 181 patients (range 5–46). For the PBA, the superiority of the PET method was reported in two out of ten studies (both using [
18
F]DOPA). For LBA, PET detected significantly more lesions than scintigraphy in seven out of ten studies.
Conclusions
PET/CT using catecholaminergic tracers shows superior diagnostic performance than mIBG scintigraphy. However, it is still unknown if such superiority can influence clinical decision-making. Nonetheless, the PET examination appears promising for clinical practice as it offers faster image acquisition, less need for sedation, and a single-day examination. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 ObjectType-Undefined-3 |
ISSN: | 1619-7070 1619-7089 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s00259-023-06486-9 |