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This study was performed to evaluate whether the presence or absence of somatostatin receptors in malignant carcinoid tumours detected by [111In-DTPA-D-Phe1]octreotide scintigraphy can be used to predict response to somatostatin analogue treatment. Thirty patients were investigated, 28 with midgut carcinoid tumours and two with foregut carcinoid tumours. Twenty-seven patients showed pathological uptake in tumour lesions at scintigraphy; of these, 22 responded to somatostatin analogue treatment using octreotide, somatuline or octastatin, while five patients failed to respond. None of the three patients displaying negative scintigraphic investigations responded to treatment with somatostatin analogues. These results show a good correlation between the somatostatin receptor status and the patients' ability to respond to somatostatin analogue treatment (p = 0.014). We conclude that somatostatin receptor scintigraphy using [111In-DTPA-D-Phe1]octreotide can be used to select patients with malignant carcinoid tumours suitable for somatostatin analogue treatment and exclude those that will not benefit from such medication.