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PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with WD-GEP-NET who benefited from a pretherapeutic 68Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT and a 177Lu-DOTATATE SPECT/CT after the cycle 1 of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy were prospectively included. SPECT/CT acquisitions were performed on a system calibrated with a conversion factor of 9.48 counts/MBq per second and were reconstructed with an iterative algorithm allowing quantification using the SPECTRA Quant software (MIM Software, Cleveland, OH). For each patient, different SUV parameters were recorded on both PET/CT (Ga parameters) and SPECT/CT (Lu parameters) for comparison: physiological uptakes (liver/spleen), tumor uptake (1-10/patient; SUVmax, SUVmean, SUVpeak, MTV), tumor-to-liver and tumor-to-spleen ratios according to liver/spleen SUVmax and SUVmean (TLRmax, TLRmean, TSRmax, and TSRmean, respectively). RESULTS Ten patients (8 female; 2 male) aged from 50 to 83 years presenting with a metastatic progressive WD-GEP-NET (7 small intestine, 2 pancreas, 1 rectum) were included. Median values of lesional Lu-SUV were significantly lower than the corresponding Ga-SUV (P < 0.001), whereas median values of lesional Lu-MTV, Lu-TLR, and Lu-TSR were significantly higher than the corresponding Ga-MTV, Ga-TLR, and Ga-TSR (P < 0.02). Pearson correlation coefficients were strong for both SUV and MTV parameters (0.779-0.845), weak for TLR parameters (0.365-0.394), and moderate-to-strong for TSR parameters (0.676-0.750). CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest the feasibility of 177Lu-DOTATATE SPECT/CT quantification in clinical practice and show a strong correlation of several SUV-based parameters with the corresponding in 68Ga-DOTATOC PET/CT.

Predicting the response to PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint blockade in patients with metastatic melanoma remains challenging. In this study, we have investigated for the relationships between PD-L1 expression, PD-L1 copy number variations, and the response to anti-PD-1 therapies. We studied the formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor samples of 36 patients with metastatic melanoma using PD-L1 immunohistochemistry (IHC) and PD-L1/chromosome 9 fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). PD-L1 IHC was positive in 3 patients (8.33%, with >5% stained tumor cells) and PD-L1 FISH test revealed 5 (13.8%) PD-L1 amplifications, 8 (22.2%) PD-L1 gains, and 2 (5.5%) PD-L1 losses. Among 14 responders and 13 nonresponders to anti-PD-1 immunotherapy, we concluded that there was no significant relationship between PD-L1 expression, PD-L1 copy number variations, and the response to anti-PD-1 therapies. In our study, the determination of PD-L1 expression using IHC and PD-L1 copy number using FISH was insufficient to predict the response to PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint blockade in patients with advanced melanomas.

Glioma stem cells (GSCs) are the source of tumor recurrence in glioblastoma and are capable of whole tumor regeneration once the treatment has concluded. Compelling evidence from the last decade suggests that GSC may arise from neural stem cells residing in the adult subventricular zone (SVZ). We report the findings of an 18F-FET PET/CT showing pathological uptake in SVZ with a tumor-background ratio of greater than 1.6, giving evidence for glioblastoma recurrence. This case highlights the particular attention to be paid to the SVZ given the possible development of GSC.

Triplet chemotherapy (FOLFOXIRI) + bevacizumab regimen is indicated as first-line treatment of BRAF-mutated metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Nevertheless, its proven therapeutic efficacy in clinical trials was solely based on partial morphologic responses assessed by CT. To date, only 1 case of complete response assessed by FDG PET/CT was reported in literature in BRAF-mutated mCRC, but treated with doublet chemotherapy (FOLFIRI) + cetuximab regimen. We report a complete metabolic response assessed by FDG PET/CT, maintained over time (13 months) in a 60-year-old woman with BRAF-mutated mCRC treated by FOLFOXIRI-bevacizumab. This also confirms that FDG PET/CT is emerging as a useful approach for therapeutic assessment of targeted drugs in mCRC.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text, To evaluate the diagnostic performance of net influx rate (Ki) values from a whole-body dynamic (WBD) 68Ga-DOTATOC-PET/CT acquisition to differentiate pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) from physiological uptake of pancreatic uncinate process (UP). Patients who were benefited from a WBD acquisition for the assessment of a known well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumor (NET)/suspicion of disease in the prospective GAPET-NET cohort were screened. Only patients with a confirmed pNET/UP as our gold standard were included. The positron emission tomography (PET) procedure consisted in a single-bed dynamic acquisition centered on the heart, followed by a whole-body dynamic acquisition and then a static acquisition. Dynamic (Ki calculated according to Patlak method), static (SUVmax, SUVmean, SUVpeak) parameters, and tumor-to-liver and tumor-to-spleen ratio (TLRKi and TSRKi (according to hepatic/splenic Ki)), tumor SUVmax to liver SUVmax (TM/LM), tumor SUVmax to liver SUVmean (TM/Lm), tumor SUVmax to spleen SUVmax (TM/SM), and tumor SUVmax to spleen SUVmean (TM/Sm) (according to hepatic/splenic SUVmax and SUVmean respectively) were calculated. A Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to evaluate their diagnostic performance to distinguish UP from pNET. One hundred five patients benefited from a WBD between July 2018 and July 2019. Eighteen (17.1%) had an UP and 26 (24.8%) a pNET. For parameters alone, the Ki and SUVpeak had the best sensitivity (88.5%) while the Ki, SUVmax, and SUVmean had the best specificity (94.4%). The best diagnostic accuracy was obtained with Ki (90.9%). For ratios, the TLRKi and the TSRKi had the best sensitivity (95.7%) while the TM/SM and TM/Sm the best specificity (100%). TLRKi had the best diagnostic accuracy (95.1%) and the best area under the curve (AUC) (0.990). Our study is the first one to evaluate the interest of a WBD acquisition to differentiate UP from pNETs and shows excellent diagnostic performances of the Ki approach.