Long time response with chemotherapy in ROS1 NSCLC patient with unusual metastatic site.

During the last decade the therapeutic landscape of Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) has profoundly changed with the identification of actionable genetic alterations that defined molecularly selected subgroups of patients with specific clinic-pathological characteristics and increased sensitivity to specific targeted agents. The presence of ROS1 rearrangements defines a small subgroup of lung adenocarcinomas (∼1-2%) with peculiar clinic-pathological characteristics and increased sensitivity to Crizotinib. It has been reported that ROS1-tranlslocated NSCLCs may also respond well to Pemetrexed-based chemotherapy. Moreover, patients with oncogene-addicted NSCLC may present peculiar pattern of metastatization and, in some instances, are associated with unusual site of metastases. Herein, we present a case of a young woman with bilateral ovarian metastases from a ROS1-positive adenocarcinoma of the lung with a lengthy progression-free survival on Pemetrexed-containing chemotherapy.

Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy in patients with inoperable meningiomas: our experience and review of the literature.

OBJECTIVE: Few studies describe peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) using (90)Y- or (177)Lu-labeled peptides in patients with recurrent meningiomas. No clinical data about (111)In-Pentetreotide in such patients are available. We report on (111)In-Pentetreotide therapy in patients with inoperable meningiomas and review the literature about PRRT of meningiomas. METHODS: We reviewed clinical records of 8 patients with meningioma/meningiomatosis showing high (111)In-Pentetreotide uptake on pretherapy scintigraphy who were treated with at least one cycle of (111)In-Pentetreotide. In 2 patients, a cocktail of (111)In-Pentetreotide and beta-emitting radiolabeled peptides had been administered. RESULTS: No patient experienced acute toxicity, neurological or renal function impairment. Mild transient bone marrow toxicity was observed in 4 patients. Objective partial response was observed in 2 patients, stable disease in 5 and disease progression in one. There were no statistically significant correlations between objective response and patient age, tumor WHO grade, baseline Karnofsky performance score, (111)In-Pentetreotide tumoral uptake grade, tumor/nontumor ratio, disease state at baseline, and cumulative dose. CONCLUSIONS: In consideration of its efficacy and the lack of significant toxicity, PRRT of meningiomas using (111)In-Pentetreotide could be proposed even nowadays when the use of (177)Lu- or (90)Y-labeled peptides seems unsafe, namely in patients with renal impairment/toxicity.

Peptide receptor imaging in neuroendocrine tumors: comparison between diagnostic scintigraphy and post-therapy whole-body scan.

OBJECTIVE: Several different somatostatin analogs labeled with gamma or positron-emitting radionuclides exist for diagnostic imaging of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). Differences between standard diagnostic scintigraphy (SDS) and post-therapy whole-body scan (PTWBS) at peptide receptor radionuclide therapy in lesion detection are known; such differences have been correlated with the varying degree of receptor subtype expression and the varying receptor affinity profile of the different ligands. The aim of this study is to investigate differences between SDS and PTWBS obtained using the same radiopharmaceutical. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed clinical records of 53 patients with a diagnosis of NET, who underwent both SDS and PTWBS using (111)In-Pentetreotide. We compared the number of lesions for each body region detected by SDS and PTWBS. RESULTS: In 14/53 patients (26.4%) discrepancies between SDS and PTWBS were found. PTWBS detected 68 additional lesions with respect to SDS that were distributed as follows: head and neck, 6; mediastinum, 1; liver, 10; abdomen/pelvis, 1; bone, 44; other localizations, 6. The number of lesions detected by SDS was significantly different from that revealed by PTWBS (Wilcoxon matched pairs test, P = 0.0313). The regions that contributed significantly to reach this difference were head and neck (McNemar test, P = 0.0412), liver (McNemar test, P = 0.0044), bone (McNemar test, P < 0.0001) and other localizations (McNemar test, P = 0.0412). CONCLUSION: PTWBS shows more lesions than SDS with a significant discrepancy. We suppose that administration of higher radiopharmaceutical activity, use of larger peptide amount and the different time interval between radiopharmaceutical administration and scan execution can determine a higher sensitivity of PTWBS.

Is detection of additional lesions in post-peptide receptor radionuclide therapy scans with respect to diagnostic imaging only due to different affinity of ligands?: a report of discordance between diagnostic and posttherapy imaging using the same ligand.

It is known that different affinity profiles for somatostatin receptor subtypes among different radiopharmaceuticals result in different organ and tumor uptakes and even in different sensitivities in the detection of lesions. Such differences are considered main factors explaining cases of detecting additional lesions in posttherapy scans with respect to diagnostic imaging. We show a posttherapy scan revealing more lesions--namely, a diffuse bone involvement with many small focal bony uptake areas--than the diagnostic scan using the same radiopharmaceutical (111In-pentetreotide) in a 71-year-old man with metastases from a well-differentiated ileal neuroendocrine tumor.

Timing of examination affects reliability of 99mTc-methoxyisobutylisonitrile SPECT in distinguishing neoplastic from nonneoplastic brain hematomas.

UNLABELLED: 99mTc-methoxyisobutylisonitrile (MIBI) SPECT has been reported to be 100% sensitive and specific in the early differential diagnosis between neoplastic and nonneoplastic intraparenchymal cerebral hemorrhage (ICH), because nonneoplastic ICH does not show 99mTc-MIBI accumulation on SPECT examinations performed within 48 h from the onset of clinical symptoms. The aims of this study were to investigate the behavior of nonneoplastic ICH on more delayed 99mTc-MIBI SPECT examinations and to determine how the timing of examination affects the reliability of 99mTc-MIBI SPECT in differentiating neoplastic from nonneoplastic ICH. METHODS: We prospectively enrolled 32 patients with acute neurologic deterioration caused by nontraumatic ICH. Patients were randomly allocated to 4 groups of 8 patients each. Patients in the first, second, third, and fourth groups underwent 99mTc-MIBI SPECT 2, 5, 10, and 30 d, respectively, after the onset of clinical deterioration. Furthermore, patients in the first group underwent a second (99m)Tc-MIBI SPECT examination at 30 d. 99mTc-MIBI SPECT studies were visually and semiquantitatively evaluated. Patients were followed up to confirm the nonneoplastic etiology of the ICH. RESULTS: Two of the 32 studied patients, 1 in the second and 1 in the fourth group, were excluded because the ICH turned out to be related to a neoplastic lesion. Visual analysis showed no 99mTc-MIBI uptake in any patient studied at 2 d, whereas increased radiotracer uptake was found in 1 (14%) of 7, 5 (62.5%) of 8, and 5 (71%) of 7 patients studied 5, 10, and 30 d, respectively, after clinical deterioration. Moreover, with the semiquantitative analysis, a statistically significant difference was found among 99mTc-MIBI indices in the 4 groups (P = 0.0011). All patients in group 1 showed a significant 99mTc-MIBI accumulation when studied at 30 d. CONCLUSION: Nonneoplastic ICH, showing no 99mTc-MIBI uptake within 2 d, can show 99mTc-MIBI accumulation on more delayed imaging. 99mTc-MIBI SPECT can clearly differentiate between neoplastic and nonneoplastic ICH only during the acute phase. Our findings suggest that examination be performed early after the onset of symptoms and certainly within 5 d.