• Bone metastases in neuroendocrine tumours correlate with prognosis. • Benign bone lesions may mimic metastases on Ga-DOTA-TOC PET/CT imaging. • The specific polka-dot CT pattern may be missing in some vertebral haemangiomas. • Lesion atypical for haemangiomas can be better characterized by quantifying Ga-DOTA-TOC uptake.