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Unknown SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia detected by PET/CT in patients with cancer.

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION:In January 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in Italy necessitated rigorous application of more restrictive safety procedures in the management and treatment of patients with cancer to ensure patient and staff protection. Identification of respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection was a challenge during the pandemic owing to a large number of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients. METHODS:We report 5 patients with unknown SARS-CoV-2 infection undergoing positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) with radiopharmaceuticals targeting different tumor processes: 18F-FDG, 18F-choline (FCH), and 68Ga-PSMA. RESULTS:In all patients, PET/CT showed increased tracer uptake in the lungs corresponding to CT findings of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. Quantitative assessment of tracer uptake showed more elevated values for the glucose analogue 18F-FDG (mean SUVmax 5.4) than for the other tracers (mean SUVmax 3.5). CONCLUSIONS:Our findings suggest that PET/CT is a sensitive modality to hypothesize SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia in patients with cancer, even when asymptomatic. More data are needed to verify the correlation among immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection, clinical evolution, and PET results. Under the strict safety measures implemented at the PET center, the number of potentially SARS-CoV-2-positive patients undergoing PET/CT was very low (1.6%), and no staff member has been diagnosed with infection as of April 30, 2020.

SUBMITTER: Scarlattei M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7308791 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Unknown SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia detected by PET/CT in patients with cancer.

Scarlattei Maura M Baldari Giorgio G Silva Mario M Bola Stefano S Sammartano Antonino A Migliari Silvia S Graziani Tiziano T Cidda Carla C Sverzellati Nicola N Ruffini Livia L

Tumori 20200622 4

<h4>Introduction</h4>In January 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in Italy necessitated rigorous application of more restrictive safety procedures in the management and treatment of patients with cancer to ensure patient and staff protection. Identification of respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection was a challenge during the pandemic owing to a large number of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients.<h4>Methods</h4>We report 5 patients with unknown SAR ...[more]

PMID: 32567505

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Project description:Prostate cancer (PC) is usually characterized by an excellent prognosis, largely due to little biological aggressiveness and the power of hormonal deprivation therapy. In spite of these favorable characteristics, however, a significant quota of patients does not respond to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and develop a progressive disease. Castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) is defined by disease progression in spite of ADT. This progression may show any combination of a rise in serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA), clinical and radiological progression of pre-existing disease, and appearance of new metastases. This event is a striking change in the clinical scenario, since the power of treatment for CRPC patients with distant metastases is very limited. Somatostatin is a hormone produced by neuroendocrine cells. Its distant effects are mediated by the binding to five specific receptors, which are the most striking parameter for neuroendocrine. Various synthetic somatostatin agonists able to bind to the receptors have been synthesized during the past two decades for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Octreotide, the most popular of these, is widely used to treat patients affected by neuroendocrine tumors. A number of researches carried out in the past evaluated the possible neuroendocrine differentiation (NED) of PC cells in the castration resistant phase. If proved, the presence of a specific class of receptor on cell's surfaces should give a potentially biological target to be used for therapy. However, these studies led to contradictory results. Aim of our phase III diagnostic trial was to study "in vivo" the over-expression of somatostatin receptors (SSTRs) in CRPC patients by PET/CT after the administration of the somatostatin analog [(68)Ga-DOTANOC,1-Nal(3)]-octreotide labeled with (68)Ga. Every area of increased uptake corresponding to a metastasis detected with other methods was considered as SSTRs expressing. False positivity to SSTRs expression was considered those localizations with a suspicious uptake not confirmed by other radiologic procedures. On the other hand, metastatic lesions lacking the radiopharmaceutical's uptake were considered not SSTRs expressing metastases. The preliminary results in 6 of the 67 patients scheduled by our phase III trial showed metastases with a variable SSTRs expression in 2 patients.

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Unknown SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia detected by PET/CT in patients with cancer.

Publications

Unknown SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia detected by PET/CT in patients with cancer.

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