A head-to-head comparison of 68Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 and 18F-FDG PET/MR in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a prospective study

To conduct a head-to-head comparison of the diagnostic ability 68Ga-DOTA-FAPI-04 (68Ga-FAPI) and 18F-FDG PET/MR in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients. Patients diagnosed with NPC were prospectively enrolled. All patients underwent head-and-neck 68Ga-FAPI within 1 week. Primary tumor, lymph node numbers, tracer uptake compared by SUVmax visual evaluation. The primary tumor volumes derived from 68Ga-FAPI, PET, MRI also compared. Fifteen enrolled June to August 2020. Both PET had 100% detection rate tumor. tumors (13.87 ± 5.13) was lower than that (17.73 6.84), but difference not significant (p = 0.078). Compared 18F-FDG, improved delineation skull-base invasion eight out intracranial four When 25%SUVmax or 20%SUVmax utilized as threshold for determining volume, it highly consistent MRI. detected much more positive nodes (100 vs 48). 48 paired significantly on (8.67 3.88 11.79 6.17, p < 0.001). Additionally, further suspected small, distant metastases three changed overall staging six fifteen patients, being up-staged, down-staged. outperforms delineating detecting metastases, particularly evaluation invasion, suggesting hybrid has potential serve single-step modality NPC. However, its value regarding needs study. NCT04554719. Registered September 8, 2020 - retrospectively registered, http://clinicaltrails.gov/show/NCT04554719