Comparison of [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 and [¹⁸F] FDG PET/CT for the diagnosis of primary and metastatic lesions in patients with various types of cancer.

Abstract

PurposeWe evaluated the potential usefulness of [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) for the diagnosis of primary and metastatic lesions in various types of cancer, compared with [¹⁸F] FDG PET/CT.MethodsA total of 75 patients with various types of cancer underwent contemporaneous [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 and [¹⁸F] FDG PET/CT either for an initial assessment or for recurrence detection. Tumour uptake was quantified by the maximum standard uptake value (SUVmax). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV) and accuracy of [¹⁸F] FDG and [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 PET/CT were calculated and compared to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy.ResultsThe study cohort consisted of 75 patients (47 males and 28 females; median age, 61.5 years; age range, 32-85 years). Fifty-four patients with 12 different tumour entities underwent paired [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 and [¹⁸F] FDG PET/CT for initial assessment, while the other 21 patients underwent paired scans for recurrence detection. [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 PET/CT was able to clearly identify 12 types of malignant tumours with favourable tumour-to-background contrast, which resulted in a higher detection rate of primary tumours than did [¹⁸F] FDG PET/CT (98.2% vs. 82.1%, P = 0.021). Meanwhile, [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 PET/CT showed a better sensitivity than [¹⁸F] FDG PET/CT in the detection of lymph nodes (86.4% vs. 45.5%, P = 0.004) and bone and visceral metastases (83.8% vs. 59.5%, P = 0.004).Conclusion[⁶⁸Ga]Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 PET/CT showed a superior diagnostic efficacy than [¹⁸F] FDG PET/CT for the diagnosis of primary and metastatic lesions in patients with various types of cancer, especially in identifying liver metastases, peritoneal carcinomatosis, and brain tumours.