[IN-111-DTPA-D-PHE(1)]OCTREOTIDE SCINTIGRAPHY IN PATIENTS WITH CARCINOID-TUMORS - THE PREDICTIVE VALUE FOR SOMATOSTATIN ANALOG TREATMENT

This study was performed to evaluate whether the presence or absence o f somatostatin receptors in malignant carcinoid tumours detected by [[ In-111-DTPA-D-Phe(1)]octreotide scintigraphy can be used to predict re sponse to somatostatin analogue treatment. Thirty patients were invest igated, 28 with midgut carcinoid tumours and two with foregut carcinoi d tumours. Twenty-seven patients showed pathological uptake in tumour lesions at scintigraphy; of these, 22 responded to somatostatin analog ue treatment using octreotide, somatuline or octastatin, while five pa tients failed to respond. None of the three patients displaying negati ve scintigraphic investigations responded to treatment with somatostat in analogues. These results show a good correlation between the somato statin receptor status and the patients' ability to respond to somatos tatin analogue treatment (p = 0.014). We conclude that somatostatin re ceptor scintigraphy using [In-111-DTPA-D-Phe(1)]octreotide can be used to select patients with malignant carcinoid tumours suitable for soma tostatin analogue treatment and exclude those that will not benefit fr om such medication.