Overview

• A retrospective case review from Alliance Medical, presented this week at the European Association of Nuclear Medicine congress, found atypical FDG uptake on oncologic PET-CT in patients taking GLP-1 medications.
• Altered uptake in muscles, heart tissue and brown fat can resemble inflammation or malignancy, raising risks of misinterpretation, unnecessary tests and incorrect cancer staging.
• Researchers do not recommend stopping GLP-1 therapy before scans and advise imaging services to record patients’ medication histories when interpreting results.
• Lead author Peter Strouhal said such patterns are increasingly common and noted there is no national guidance in the United Kingdom, with no U.S. guidelines reported.
• The evidence remains preliminary, and the team plans broader, international data collection across additional imaging centers to inform potential future guidance.