Relationship between somatostatin receptor expressing tumour volume and health‐related quality of life in patients with metastatic GEP‐NET

For patients with gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (GEP‐NET), health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) is important. Meanwhile, whether tumour volume is associated with HRQoL is unknown. Hence, the aim of this study was to assess if total somatostatin receptor expressing tumour volume is correlated with HRQoL in patients with metastatic GEP‐NET. Some 71 patients were included in the study. HRQoL and NET‐specific symptoms were assessed with EORTC QLQ‐C30 and EORTC GI.NET21. A summary score was calculated from the output of the QLQ‐C30. Total somatostatin receptor expressing tumour volume was retrospectively evaluated on somatostatin receptor imaging with positron emission tomography‐computed tomography ((68)Ga‐DOTA‐TATE/TOC PET‐CT) in each patient. Simple and multiple linear regression were used to evaluate the correlation between tumour volume and HRQoL, controlling for potential confounders. No correlation was found between total somatostatin receptor expressing tumour volume and QLQ‐C30 summary score. Weak positive correlations were found between total tumour volume and the specific symptoms dyspnoea, diarrhoea and flushing. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the association between total somatostatin expressing tumour volume and HRQoL. Our results indicate that, while tumour volume is weakly associated with symptom severity of the carcinoid syndrome, other factors might impact more on overall HRQoL.