Nucl Med Mol Imaging.  2020 Dec;54(6):281-291. 10.1007/s13139-020-00666-3.

Comparison of ¹⁸F-NaF PET/CT with Other Imaging Methods in the Detection of Bone Metastases in Patients with Medullary Thyroid Cancer: a Report of a Series of 31 Cases

• Ueda CE
• Duarte PS
• Castroneves LAd
• Coura-Filho GB
• Sado HN
• Sapienza MT
• Hoff AO
• Buchpiguel CA

• KMID: 2509569
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-020-00666-3

Abstract

Purpose
To compare the ¹⁸F-NaF PET/CT studies (¹⁸F-NaF) with other imaging methods in the detection of skeletal metastases (SM) in patients with medullary thyroid cancer (MTC).
Methods
We retrospectively analyzed 31 patients with MTC who performed ¹⁸F-NaF to assess SM. The results of the ¹⁸F-NaF were compared with other imaging methods performed for metastasis detection: ⁹⁹Tc-MDP bone scan (BS), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), contrast-enhanced CT (CT), and ⁶⁸Ga-Dotatate and ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT studies. A qualitative analysis comparing the ¹⁸F-NaF findings with the ones of the other methods was performed, and the results were classified as superior (>), equal (=), and inferior (<).
Results
Eleven patients had no bone metastases detected on any of the imaging methods used. Twenty patients presented SM depicted on ¹⁸F-NaF. Of these 20 patients, 12 performed bone scan (in 9 ¹⁸F-NaF > BS and in 3 ¹⁸8F-NaF = BS), 1 performed 18F-FDG (¹⁸F-NaF >¹⁸F-FDG), 4 performed ¹⁸Ga-Dotatate (in 2 ¹⁸F-NaF >¹⁸Ga-Dotatate and in 2 ¹⁸F-NaF = ¹⁸Ga-Dotatate), 20 performed CT of at least one body segment (in 15 ¹⁸F-NaF = CT and in 5 ¹⁸F-NaF > CT), and 16 performed MRI of at least one body segment, and in all of them, the ¹⁸F-NaF was equal to the MRI. Beside this, the ¹⁸F-NaF detected SM in body segments not routinely scanned in MRI and CT.
Conclusion
In patients with MTC, the ¹⁸F-NaF seems to be equal or superior to other imaging modalities in the detection of SM and allows the analysis of the whole skeletal in a single study.

Keyword

Fluorine; ¹⁸F . PET/CT; ¹⁸F-NaF; Medullary thyroid carcinoma; Bone metastases