Somatostatin receptor molecular imaging for metastatic intracranial hemangiopericytoma

Intracranial hemangiopericytomas (HPCs) are rare tumors that closely mimic meningiomas. However, in contrast to meningiomas, HPCs have a relatively high incidence of local recurrence and distant metastases, manifesting the need for sensitive noninvasive methods of detection that efficiently image the entire body. We present a rare case of a right optic nerve sheath HPC in which we identified a previously unknown distant metastasis in the thoracic spine on an 111In-pentetreotide scan. We detail the radiologic characteristics seen with somatostatin receptor imaging, FDG PET, and MRI and discuss how to exploit these findings to detect recurrence and metastatic disease in HPC.