Usual and unusual neuroendocrine tumor metastases on (68)Ga-DOTANOC PET/CT: a pictorial review

Abstract

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are slow-growing indolent tumors that often present with metastatic disease at the outset. They commonly metastasize to lymph nodes, liver, bone, and lungs. However, metastasis to other rare sites may occur. It is important to have clear knowledge of unusual NET metastatic sites because their presence may lead to a more directed investigation. Also, it will be helpful in ruling out incidental second malignancies that might be encountered. The objective of this pictorial article was to provide an illustrative tutorial showing the clinical utility of Ga-labeled somatostatin analog [1, 4, 7, 10-tetraazacyclododecane-1, 4, 7, 10-tetraacetic acid]-1-NaI3-octreotide (Ga-DOTANOC) PET/CT for imaging usual and unusual metastatic sites in patients with NETs.