Radiolabeled FAPI in pancreatic cancer: can it be an additional value in the management of patients?

From the initial 139 studies, 21 papers were selected for the final analysis. Ten papers were relative to FAPI-uptake in health/benign/malignant pancreas, 8 studies were focalized on the utility of radiolabeled-FAPI for the identification of premalignant and malignant pancreatic lesions and only 3 papers were relative to the theragnostic approach. Only 2 papers enrolled exclusively patients with pancreatic cancer undergoing FAPI-PET. In total, 55 patients underwent FAPI-PET for the identification of the suspicious mass/primary tumor (n=43) and recurrent disease (n=12). In both the studies, FAPI-PET detected more lesions than 2-[F]FDG. Preliminary data about the FAPI-based theragnostic approach in patients with pancreatic cancer (n=9 patients, totally) are now available. Radiolabeled-FAPI is a promising agent for the identification of pancreatic malignant lesions, but further prospective studies are still necessary.