Technetium-99m tetrofosmin single photon emission computed tomography in the evaluation of suspected lung cancer

Technetium-99m-tetrofosmin is a radiopharmaceutical employed for myocardial imaging, which has recently emerged as useful in the visualization of tumours. In this study technetium-99m-tetrofosmin was evaluated for its accuracy in differentiating malignant from benign pulmonary lesions, and in detecting mediastinal node metastasis due to lung cancer. Eighty-one patients with a solitary lung lesion on the chest radiograph and/or CT scan were submitted to chest single photon emission computed tomography after technetium-99m-tetrofosmin injection (740 MBq i.v). The scintigraphic findings were correlated to the final histopathological diagnosis, demonstrating abnormal tracer accumulation in 51 of 54 malignant lesions (sensitivity 94% and in 4 out of 27 benign conditions (specificity 85%, yielding an accuracy of 91 % Mediastinal lymph-node involvement was evaluated in 35 patients with non small cell lung cancer who underwent mediastinoscopy and/or surgery. Tetrofosmin accuracy (89% was significantly higher than that of CT (69%, p < 0.05); the false negative scintigraphic results were in nodes sized less than 1 cm. In conclusion technetium-99m-tetrofosmin imaging is useful in distinguishing malignant om benign pulmonary lesions, and in non-invasively assessing mediastinal node metastases from non small cell lung cancer, especially in patients with enlarged nodes by CT scan.