JNM publishes procedure standard/practice guideline for SSTR PET imaging of neuroendocrine tumors

Reston, VA — The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) have issued a new procedure standard/practice guideline for somatostatin receptor (SSTR) PET imaging for patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). The standard/guideline, published in the February issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM), is intended to assist physicians in recommending, performing, interpreting, and reporting the results of SSTR PET imaging studies for patients with NETs.

SSTRs are overexpressed on a wide range of NET cells and can be targeted using somatostatin analogs (SSAs). While SSAs were initially targeted with ¹¹¹In-pentetreotide scintigraphic imaging, the next generation of SSTR PET imaging with ⁶⁸Ga-DOTATATE, ⁶⁸Ga-DOTATOC, or ⁶⁴Cu-DOTATATE, allows for improved sensitivity of lesion detection, lower radiation dose, and shorter and more convenient study duration. The new standard/guideline focuses on these PET radiotracers.

In the SSTR PET imaging standard/guideline, SNMMI and EANM address common clinical indications, qualifications and responsibilities of personnel, procedure/specifications of the examination, documentation and reporting, and dosimetry. They also present standardized quality control/quality assurance procedures and imaging procedures for SSTR PET, as adequate precision, accuracy, repeatability, and reproducibility are essential for the clinical management of patients and the use of SSTR PET within multicenter trials.

“The SSTR PET procedure standard/practice guideline aims to provide clinicians with the best available evidence, to inform where robust evidence is lacking, and to help them to deliver the best possible diagnostic efficacy and study quality for their patients,” said Thomas A. Hope, vice chair of Clinical Operations and Strategy in the Department of Radiology and director of Molecular Therapy at the University of California San Francisco in San Francisco, Calif., and chief of Nuclear Medicine at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. “A standardized imaging procedure will help to promote the appropriate use of SSTR PET and enhance subsequent research.”

SNMMI/EANM periodically define new standards/guidelines for nuclear medicine practice to help advance the science of nuclear medicine and to deliver effective and safe medical care to patients. Each standard/guideline, representing a policy statement by the SNMMI/EANM, undergoes a thorough consensus process in which it is subjected to extensive review.

The authors of “SNMMI Procedure Standard/EANM Practice Guideline for SSTR PET: Imaging Neuroendocrine Tumors” include Thomas A. Hope, Department of Radiology, San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, California, and Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Martin Allen-Auerbach, Jeremie Calais, and Magnus Dahlbom, Ahmanson Translational Theranostics Division, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, UCLA, Los Angeles, California; Lisa Bodei, Molecular Imaging and Therapy Service, Department of Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York; Lisa K. Dunnwald and Michael Graham, Department of Radiology, Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa; Heather A. Jacene, Department of Imaging, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Courtney Lawhn Heath, Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, university of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California; Erik S. Mittra, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon; Chadwick L. Wright, Wright Center of Innovation and Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio; Wolfgang P. Fendler and Ken Herrmann, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Duisberg-Essen and German Cancer Consortium (DKTK)-University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany; David Taïeb, Department of Nuclear Medicine, La Timone University Hospital, CERIMED, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France; and Andreas Kjaer, Department of Clinical Physiology, Nuclear Medicine & PET and Cluster for Molecular Imaging, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Rigshospitalet and University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.

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About JNM and the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) is the world’s leading nuclear medicine, molecular imaging and theranostics journal, accessed 15 million times each year by practitioners around the globe, providing them with the information they need to advance this rapidly expanding field. Current and past issues of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine can be found online at http://jnm.snmjournals.org.

JNM is published by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to advancing nuclear medicine and molecular imaging—precision medicine that allows diagnosis and treatment to be tailored to individual patients in order to achieve the best possible outcomes. For more information, visit www.snmmi.org.