⁶⁸Ga-DOTATATE PET-Based Radiation Contouring Creates More Precise Radiation Volumes for Patients With Meningioma

Purpose: Radiation treatment planning for meningiomas traditionally involves magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast enhanced images to define residual tumor. However, the gross tumor volume may be difficult to delineate for patients with a meningioma in the skull base sagittal sinus or after resection. Advanced positron emission tomography (PET) imaging using ⁶⁸Ga-DOTATATE, which has been shown to be more sensitive and specific than MRI imaging, can be used for target volume delineation in these circumstances. We hypothesized that ⁶⁸Ga-DOTATATE PET scan-based treatment planning would lead to smaller radiation volumes and would detect additional areas of disease compared with standard MRI alone.

Methods and materials: Our data evaluated retrospective, deidentified, and blinded gross tumor volume contour delineation with 7 central nervous system (CNS) specialists (4 CNS radiation oncologists and 3 neuroradiologists) for 25 patients with a meningioma diagnosis who received both a ⁶⁸Ga-DOTATATE PET and an MRI for radiation treatment planning. Both the MRI and the PET were nonsequentially contoured by each physician for each patient.

Results: The median MRI volume for each physician ranged from 16.94-25.53 cm³. The median PET volume for each physician ranged from 2.09 to 8.36 cm³. The median PET volume was smaller for each physician. In addition, 7 of the 25 patients (28%) had new nonadjacent areas contoured on PET by at least 6 of the 7 physicians that were not contoured by these physicians on the corresponding MRI. These new areas would not have been in the traditional MRI-based volumes.

Conclusions: Our study supports that ⁶⁸Ga-DOTATATE PET imaging may help radiation oncologists create more precise radiation treatment volumes through finding undetected areas of disease not seen on MRI. Treatment planning guided by ⁶⁸Ga-DOTATATE PET should be studied prospectively.