Early treatment response in malignant lymphoma, as determined by planar fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose scintigraphy.
Clinical oncology needs flexible techniques for routine monitoring of treatment response. We therefore compared planar 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) with a conventional gamma-camera and a special collimator to 67Ga scintigraphy in 26 patients with malignant lymphoma during chemotherapy. The scintigraphic appearance of involved sites was essentially the same with both tracers: in patients eventually achieving complete remission, tracer distribution had normalized after two courses; high uptake reflected treatment failure; faint uptake was associated with variable outcome. For (re)staging, 67Ga may be preferable (higher contrast). To document the initial response, we performed FDG scintigraphy during the first course (n = 11). Effective treatment sharply reduced metabolic tumor activity within days and prior to volume response, whereas abnormal uptake persisted in treatment failure. Planar FDG scintigraphy may be a tool to assess the potentially prognostic initial response rate, preventing over-treatment and allowing a timely switch to more aggressive therapy.
Hoekstra
O S
OS
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Free University Hospital, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Ossenkoppele
G J
GJ
Golding
R
R
van Lingen
A
A
Visser
G W
GW
Teule
G J
GJ
Huijgens
P C
PC
D003847:Deoxyglucose / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D005710:Gallium Radioisotopes; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000188:drug therapy; D012074:Remission Induction; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
D005710:Gallium Radioisotopes; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D003847:Deoxyglucose