18 F-Labeled Somatostatin Analogs as PET Tracers for the Somatostatin Receptor: Ready for Clinical Use.

Molecular imaging of the somatostatin receptor plays a key role in the clinical management of neuroendocrine tumors. PET imaging with somatostatin analogs (SSAs) labeled with ⁶⁸ Ga or ⁶⁴ Cu is currently the gold standard in clinical practice. However, widespread implementation of ⁶⁸ Ga imaging is often hampered by practical and economic issues related to ⁶⁸ Ge/ ⁶⁸ Ga generators. ¹⁸ F offers several advantages to tackle these issues. Recent developments in radiochemistry have allowed a shift from ⁶⁸ Ga toward ¹⁸ F labeling, leading to promising clinical translations of ¹⁸ F-labeled SSAs, such as Gluc-Lys-[ ¹⁸ F]FP-TOCA, [ ¹⁸ F]F-FET-βAG-TOCA, [ ¹⁸ F]AlF-NOTA-octreotide, [ ¹⁸ F]SiTATE, and [ ¹⁸ F]AlF-NOTA-JR11. This review gives an update of currently available clinical data regarding ¹⁸ F-labeled SSA tracers and provides justification for the clinical application of this class of tracers.
(© 2023 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.)