GA-67 AS A TUMOR-SEEKING AGENT IN LYMPHOMAS - A REVIEW

Background: At present Ga-67 can be considered one of the most widely used viability radiotracers. There is general consensus in the literat ure that Ga-67 has the highest clinical value in the management of lym phoma patients. Methods: We critically discuss the role of gallium sci ntigraphy in lymphoma patients on the basis of the experience of the N uclear Medicine Division at the National Cancer Institute of Milan, Re sults and Conclusions: The sensitivity of gallium scan is very high (8 0-90%) in the staging and follow-up of Hodgkin's disease, and the meth od is also of great importance in the follow-up of lymphoma patients, We recommend scintigraphy to study the residual mediastinal mass after treatment. Our experiences during the follow-up of 189 lymphoma patie nts clearly showed the superior performance of gallium scan compared t o MRI in the study of the mediastinal region after treatment. Sensitiv ity and specificity were both very high (90% and 96.9% vs 88.7% and 89 .2%, respectively). Gallium scintigraphy can also be used to study the disease-free interval, post-treatment survival, early signs of recurr ence and treatment response times. Comparison of the survival curves o f 33 patients with diffuse large cell Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma examined at the National Cancer Institute showed a statistically significant di fference (logrank test, P=0.0125) between patients with positive and t hose with negative gallium scan after 4-6 cycles of chemotherapy.