Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy Using 177Lu-DOTATATE in Advanced Neuroendocrine Tumors (NETs) in a Limited-Resource Environment

• Published in: World journal of nuclear medicine 2022-09, Vol.21 (3), p.215-221
• Main Authors: Kalantarhormozi, Mohammadreza, Hassanzadeh, Samaneh, Rekabpour, Seyed Javad, Ravanbod, Mohammad Reza, Jafari, Esmail, Amini, AbdulLatif, Dadgar, Habibollah, Mahmoudpour, Mehdi, Nabipour, Iraj, Jokar, Narges, Assadi, Majid
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Original Article
• ISSN: 1450-1147; 1607-3312
• DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1755412

Abstract Background  This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) using 177 Lu-DOTA0-Tyr3-octreotate (DOTATATE) in patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). Methods  Sixteen patients with pathologically verified NETs including eight females and eight males were enrolled in this study. Before PRRT, the patients underwent 68 Ga-DOTATATE positron emission tomography/computed tomography or 99m Tc-octreotide scintigraphy for evaluation of somatostatin receptor expression. Response to treatment was assessed according to the Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST) classified as complete response (CR), partial response (PR), stable disease (SD), and progressive disease (PD). In addition, for evaluation of toxicity, monthly blood analysis was performed including hematology, renal function (creatinine) test, and liver function test. The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) status performance was applied to estimate the patients' general condition in a scale of 0 (fully active) to 5 (dead). In addition, overall survival (OS) was calculated as the time interval from the start of PRRT to death from any reason. Results  Sixteen patients including eight females and eight males with a median age of 60.5 years (range: 24–74) were enrolled in this study. The patients underwent PRRT with a median cycle of 3.5 (range: 1–7) and a median dose of 20.35 (range: 7.4–49.95 GBq). At the end of data collection, PR, CR, SD, and PD were seen in 11, 2, 1, and 2 patients according to the RECIST, respectively. Three patients expired during or after the PRRT period. The median ECOG and Karnofsky Performance Scale was 1.5 and 75 before PRRT, which improved significantly to 1 and 80 after PRRT, respectively ( p