[Gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: diagnosis and therapy in nuclear medicine]. / Neuroendokrine Tumoren des gastroenteropankreatischen Systems: Nuklearmedizinische Diagnostik und Therapie.

ABSTRACT

The over expression of somatostatin receptors (SSTR) in neuroendocrine tumors (NET) enables diagnosis and targeted therapy using radio-labelled somatostatin analogues. PET with (68)Ga-DOTATATE or (68)Ga-DOTATOC, both with a high affinity to the SSTR subtype 2, enables diagnosis of NET with a very high sensitivity and has a significant influence on the therapeutic management of patients with NET. In particular, therapy with (177)Lu-DOTATATE, which offers a considerably lower nephrotoxicity as compared to (90)Y-DOTATOC, has only few side effects and is usually well tolerated. Up to 46% of patients suffering from GEP-NET show a response to this therapy, which is able to mitigate tumour-related symptoms and significantly improve quality of life.