Anti-carcinoembryonic antigen antibodies versus somatostatin analogs in the detection of metastatic medullary thyroid carcinoma

Comparison of 18F-DOPA, 18F-FDG and 68Ga-somatostatin analogue PET/CT in patients with recurrent medullary thyroid carcinoma

“…These variable results may be explained by the heterogeneous expression of receptor subtypes in MTC cells, as shown by in vitro studies analysing the distribution of the five somatostatin receptor subtypes by immunohistochemistry [36]. In vivo studies have also shown that the incidence of somatostatin receptors is directly correlated with tumour differentiation [37], and this may explain the high sensitivity of 111 In-octreotide for cervical lymph nodes in patients with occult disease, which is typically associated with a less aggressive behaviour of the tumour [38].…”

SPECT/CT hybrid imaging with 111In‐pentetreotide in assessment of neuroendocrine tumours

“…In tumours showing low density of receptors, such as MTC or insulinoma, SRS carries lower detection rates compared to those for carcinoid and gastrinoma (Behr et al ., 1997;De Angelis et al ., 1999). Insulinomas are best localized noninvasively by endoscopic US De Angelis et al ., 1999).…”

“…In our present study, however, this was not the case: diagnosis of patients with CT-visualized, receptor-negative tumour masses did not benefit from fused images. MTC also displays considerable heterogeneity in receptor expression, even within different areas of the same tumour site (Behr et al ., 1997(Behr et al ., , 1999. Dimercaptosuccinic acid-pentavalent (DMSA-V) (Adams et al ., 1998b), cholecystokinin-B/gastrin receptor-targeting peptides (Behr & Behe, 2002) or FDG positron emission tomography (PET) (Diehl et al ., 2001) have therefore been suggested as an alternative to SRS.…”

Diagnosis and therapy of sporadic and familial medullary thyroid carcinoma

“…Octreotide scans have been shown to be quite sensitive in detecting lung metastases; however, this technique fails to visualize tumors less than 1 cm. More recently, 131 I-anti-CEA monoclonal antibodies have been used successfully in detecting occult disease (Behr et al 1997a;Juweid et al 1996b) but CEA production and secretion are required. Hence, this technique is more sensitive in detecting recurrent disease.…”