Evaluation of primary lung carcinoma using technetium 99m-hexamethylpropylene amine oxime: preliminary clinical experience

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
99mTc-labelled hexamethylpropylene amine oxime (HMPAO) is a lipophilic compound with a neutral charge which reflects tumor blood flow and has been previously investigated to estimate brain blood flow. In this study, we attempted to use99mTc-HMPAO for the evaluation of 18 patients with histologically proven primary lung carcinoma. The eight surgical specimens revealed that viable carcinoma cells were present when the99mTc-HMPAO accumulated in the tumor, however, extensive tumor necrosis was observed when defective or ring like uptake was seen in the tumor. Qualitative study revealed that when perfusion defects were observed corresponding to the tumor, the possibility of squamous cell carcinoma or large cell carcinoma was high instead of adenocarcinoma. Quantitative analysis revealed that the uptake ratio was statistically different between adenocarcinoma (1.6±0.1) and squamous cell carcinoma (1.2±0.4) (PPP99mTc-HMPAO may be useful for the evaluation of patients with primary lung carcinoma.