Head-to-head comparison of [(68)Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 and [(18)F]-FDG PET/CT in evaluating the extent of disease in gastric adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: [(18)F]-Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET/CT) may sometimes be suboptimal for imaging gastric adenocarcinoma. The recently introduced [(68)Ga]Ga-FAPI-04 (FAPI) PET/CT targets tumor stroma and has shown considerable potential in evaluating the extent of disease in a variety of tumors. METHODS: We performed a head-to-head prospective comparison of FAPI and FDG PET/CT in the same group of 13 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma who presented for either initial staging (n = 10) or restaging (n = 3) of disease. Lesion detection and maximum standardized uptake value (SUV(max)) were compared between the two types of radiotracers. RESULTS: All ten primary gastric tumors were FAPI-positive (100% detection rate), whereas only five were also FDG-positive (50%). SUV(max) was not significantly different, but the tumor-to-background ratio was higher for FAPI (mean, median, and range of 4.5, 3.2, and 0.8–9.7 for FDG and 12.9, 11.9, and 2.2–23.9 for FAPI, P = 0.007). The level of detection of regional lymph node involvement was comparable. FAPI showed a superior detection rate for peritoneal carcinomatosis (100% vs. none). Two patients with widespread peritoneal carcinomatosis underwent a follow-up FAPI scan after chemotherapy: one showed partial remission and the other showed progressive disease. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this pilot study suggest that FAPI PET/CT outperforms FDG PET/CT in detecting both primary gastric adenocarcinoma and peritoneal carcinomatosis from gastric cancer. FAPI PET/CT also shows promise for monitoring response to treatment in patients with peritoneal carcinomatosis from gastric cancer; however, larger trials are needed to validate these preliminary findings. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00259-021-05494-x.