SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Nucl. Med.
Sec. PET and SPECT
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnume.2025.1589903
This article is part of the Research TopicRising Stars in PET and SPECT: 2024View all 4 articles
The Role of FAPI PET/CT in Patients with lymphoma: A Systematic Review
Provisionally accepted
- Azienda Ospedaliera Ospedali Riuniti Villa Sofia Cervello, Palermo, Italy
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Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT is typically the reference imaging method for assessing and tracking lymphomas. However, fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (FAPI) PET is being explored as a potentially useful option, especially when Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) scans do not show clear results. For this systematic review, two researchers searched PubMed/MEDLINE and Cochrane CENTRAL for studies on FAPI PET/CT in lymphoma patients. The literature search initially retrieved 249 articles. After removing duplicates and screening titles and abstracts, and full text, there was a final selection of 15 articles (3 original studies and 12 case reports), encompassing a total of 270 patients. The three original studies were judged to have a low risk of bias according to the QUADAS-2 criteria. The systematic review reveals that FAPI PET/CT exhibits lower diagnostic sensitivity than [ 18 F]FDG PET/CT in lymphomas characterized by low FAP expression. Nevertheless, FAPI PET/CT retains potential as a complementary imaging modality. [ 18 F]FDG PET/CT remains the gold standard in lymphoma imaging, but FAPI PET/CT can potentially provide supplementary information regarding the molecular characteristics of lymphomas. FAPI PET/CT may have prognostic and therapeutic implications. In particular, it could help identify lymphoma subgroups with distinct stromal environments, potentially serving as a prognostic biomarker. Further large-scale prospective studies are warranted to validate its role in lymphoma management.
Keywords: positron emission tomography, FDG, FAPI, Lymphoma, NHL, DLBCL
Received: 08 Mar 2025; Accepted: 21 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Quartuccio, Nicolosi, Pulizzi, D'oppido and Ialuna. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Natale Quartuccio, Azienda Ospedaliera Ospedali Riuniti Villa Sofia Cervello, Palermo, Italy
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