Early detection of lymphoma recurrence with gallium-67 scintigraphy

Earlydetectionoftumorrelapse in lymphomapatientsis oftena dtfficuttdiagnostic problem. CT, which detects a mass, often cannotdifferentiate betweenfibrosisor relapsedtumor.Forthis reason,we have studiedthe valueof 67Gascintigraphy inthe diagnosis of tumor recurrence. The sensitivity of @Ga scintigra phyinthe detectionof lymphomarecurrencewas studiedat an averageinterval of8.7 mofollowing treatment in32 patients who developed recurrent lymphoma. Its specfficftywas studied in 36 patientswithno recurrencewhowere in continuousdinicalre mission.Atthe timeof appearance of relapse,the sensitivityof whole-body 67Ga imaging was 95% and the spedficfty 89%. In 12 events of recurrence in 10 patients,67Gasantigraphy was abnormal at sites that later proved to be regions of relapse. In these patients, scintigraphy demonstrated recurrence an aver age of 6.8 mo before the appearance of clinicalsymptoms, findingson clinicalexaminationor abnOrmality on CT or chest x-rays. Gallium-67 sdntigraphy, which permits screening of the whole bodyfor recurrencein a single study, was of particular value in evaluatinglymphoma recurrence, since 27%of the recurrenceswere locatedexdusivy34:2101-2104