Widespread Skeletal Metastases in Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma: Diagnostic Superiority of 68 Ga-FAPI PET/CT Over Somatostatin Receptor-Targeted Imaging.

Taheri, Fatemeh; Tanha, Amin Saber; Aboutorabi, Robabeh Beygom; Rostami, Mehdi; Askari, Emran · Clin Nucl Med · 2026

case_report · Level V

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Abstract

A 78-year-old woman with medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) demonstrated persistently elevated serum calcitonin despite prior surgery and radiotherapy. 99m Tc-octreotide imaging failed to detect skeletal metastases, while 68 Ga-FAPI PET/CT revealed extensive skeletal involvement. Biochemical markers were disproportionately low relative to disease burden, consistent with a low-secretory MTC. This case highlights the limitations of SSTR-targeted imaging in MTC and underscores the diagnostic superiority of FAP-targeted imaging.

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