CUTANEOUS MALIGNANT-MELANOMA - SCINTIGRAPHIC DETECTION OF RECURRENT DISEASE WITH TC-99M MIBI

The postsurgical risk of recurrence in patients with malignant melanom a is relatively high and at the time of diagnosis regional progression is frequently present. Therefore, the development of a technique for the early detection of local recurrence or subclinical nodal and dista nt metastases may be of considerable help in the postsurgical follow-u p. The authors report on three cases of recurrent malignant melanoma i maged with Tc-99m MIBI, which is a radiopharmaceutical classically use d for myocardial perfusion imaging. One patient revealed abnormal accu mulation of the radiopharmaceutical in a locally recurrent lesion. The second patient showed increased MIBI uptake in skin nodules and also in clinically non-palpable lymph node metastases. In the remaining pat ient, Tc-99m MIBI revealed intense focal accumulation in the scar of t he surgical excision, at mediastinal and pulmonary locations and also in the brain. Our results suggest that Tc-99m MIBI scanning may be a s ensitive technique for the detection of locally recurrent MM as well a s nodal or distant metastases. Thus, this technique could be helpful i n the follow-up of patients with MM in order to detect early recurrent disease.