71021 - Neuroendocrine Tumors Diagnosis

Learning outcomes

acquire knowledge of clinical and imaging features of the NET patient, of the procedures that can be employed for diagnosis and of the most relevant therapeutic option (medical, surgical and target therapies)

Course contents

-Indication to nuclear medicine imaging procedures in neuroendocrine neoplasms (NEN) with particular refernce to PET/CT with various tracers and scintigraphy with somatostatin analogues

-How to interpret a NET PET/CT scan: normal tracer biodistribution, pathologic findings, false positive and negative findings

program:

NEN nuclear imaging: scintigraphy vs PET/TC

PET/CT: metabolic tracers (18F-FDG, 18F-DOPA) vs receptor tracers (68Ga-DOTA-peptides)

National and international guidelines on the employment of nuclear medicine imaging

Novel PET tracers

Clinical indication to PET/CT in the diagnostic flow-chart of NEN

Future development of PET/CT diagnostic imaging

Radiometabolic treatment: state of the art and future prospectives

Readings/Bibliography

1. Diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine for neuroendocrine tumours. Editors: K. Pacak, D. Taieb. Springer. Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-46036-9

2. PET/CT in Neuroendocrine Tumors. Editors: V. Ambrosini, S.Fanti. Springer. ISBN: 978-3-319-29202-1

3. Principles and practice of PET/CT. part 1 and 2. Technologist's Guide. Official publication of the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging

4. Nuclear Oncology. Editors: Cumali Aktolum, Stanley J. Goldsmith. Wolters Kluwer

Teaching methods

power point presentations and interactive clinical cases in order to allow the student to take part to the diagnostic process/decision making in real-life situations

Assessment methods

Interactive clinical cases will be presented to the student who will have a chance to propose his/her own image  interpretation  by answering to mutiple choice quiz. The following oral discussion of the clinical case will be exploited to test if the student has acquired knowledge of the clinical indications of nuclear medicine procedures for both the diagnostic and therapeutic management of neuroedocrine tumours patients.

Teaching tools

clinical case discussion of real life situations and image reading

Office hours

See the website of Valentina Ambrosini