

#Netspot injection how to#
How to prepareīefore your NetSpot PET scan, you’ll need to advise your doctor of any and all medications, whether over the counter, prescription, herbal supplements or vitamins. This is a type of radiation therapy which uses hormones as part of the radiation to get to and destroy cancer cells. Guides therapeutic response: Due to the quality of captures obtained with this technology, oncologists can respond with more accurately targeted therapies.Īnd when this diagnostic is chosen, patients can source a new treatment for NETs – Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT).Higher quality images: The images produced by the PET scan used in combination with NetSpot are of a much higher resolution, which makes abnormalities easier to spot – even miniscule ones.Faster: NetSpot takes only 2 hours, whereas the octreoscan traditionally used as a diagnostic is a three-day process.

With NetSpot, tumor detection is enhanced is 3 key ways: NETs absorb glucose very slowly in comparison to other cancers but contain somatostatin receptors. NetSpot deploys Ga-68 dotatate, a radioactive clone of a hormone which serves to bind somatostatin receptors, making tumors visible. NetSpot can identify even the smallest abnormalities with more success than other type of imaging agent currently in use. Previously, PET scans relied on tracers which identified tumors using radiolabeled glucose. PET scans on their own tend not to be effective in detecting these types of tumors, due to their slower uptake of glucose (unlike other cancer tumors).īut now, NetSpot has been developed. Their size makes them difficult to detect early.Īpproved by the FDA in 2016, NetSpot is a new tool which has revolutionized the standard positron emission tomography (PET). They can occur anywhere in the body, from the intestines to the lungs to the stomach and pancreas. Neuroendocrine tumors tend to be quite small.
