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. 2023 Mar 1;48(3):228-232.
doi: 10.1097/RLU.0000000000004540. Epub 2023 Jan 14.

The Role of 68 Ga-FAPI PET/CT in Detection of Metastatic Lobular Breast Cancer

Yael Eshet, Noam Tau, Sara Apter, Noam Nissan, Keren Levanon, Rinat Bernstein-Molho, Ofer Globus, Amit Itay, Tal Shapira, Cecilie Oedegaard, Malka Gorfine  1 , Michal Eifer, Tima Davidson, Einav Gal-Yam, Liran Domachevsky
Affiliations

The Role of 68 Ga-FAPI PET/CT in Detection of Metastatic Lobular Breast Cancer

Yael Eshet et al. Clin Nucl Med. .

Abstract

Purpose: Invasive lobular breast cancer (ILC) may be hard to detect using conventional imaging modalities and usually shows less avidity to 18 F-FDG PET/CT. 68 Ga-fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (FAPI) PET/CT has shown promising results in detecting non- 18 F-FDG-avid cancers. We aimed to assess the feasibility of detecting metastatic disease in patients with non- 18 F-FDG-avid ILC.

Methods: This prospective study included patients with metastatic ILC, infiltrative to soft tissues, which was not 18 F-FDG avid. The patients underwent 68 Ga-FAPI PET/CT for evaluation, which was correlated with the fully diagnostic CT performed at the same time.

Results: Seven women (aged 57 ± 10 years) were included. Among the 30 organs and structures found to be involved by tumor, the number of findings observed by FAPI PET/CT was significantly higher than that observed by CT alone ( P = 0.022), especially in infiltrative soft tissue and serosal locations.

Conclusions: This small pilot trial suggests a role for 68 Ga-FAPI PET/CT in ILC, which needs to be confirmed by subsequent trials.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest and sources of funding: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Funding (of radiotracer and PET/CT services) was provided by Sheba Medical Center internal research fund Isotopia Molecular Imaging Ltd.

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