HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bar-Shalom, R. Articles by Front, D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Bar-Shalom, R. Articles by Front, D.

Gallium-67 Uptake in a Mass of Benign Transformation Mimicking Recurrence of Nodular Lymphocytic Predominance Hodgkin's Disease

Departments of Nuclear Medicine, Pathology, Radiology and Oncology, Rambam Medical Center
B. Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

Correspondence: For correspondence and reprints contact: Dov Front, MD, PhD, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Rambam Medical Center, Haifa 35254, Israel.

ABSTRACT

Gallium-67 is now widely used in the management of lymphoma patients. It is not, however, tumor-specific and reasons for up take in nonmalignant and premalignant lesions associated with lymphoma should be recognized.Gallium-67 uptake in a mass of progressively transformed germinal centers and sarcoid-like reaction, mimicking recurrence in a 31-yr-old man with nodular lymphocytic predominance Hodgkin's disease, is described. Gallium-67 was taken up on two occasions and a recurrence was suspected. On the first occasion, abnormal uptake was present in axillary lymphnodes and on the second in mediastinal and parahilar lymphnodes. Histology of the lesions on both occasions showed progressively transformed germinal centers and sarcoid-like reaction but no evidence of Hodgkin's disease (HD). Bilateral parahilar abnormal uptake of ⁶⁷Ga disappeared spontaneously without treatment after several months. The mass on CT regressed but did not disappear. This case demonstrates that the appearance of a new mass which takes up ⁶⁷Ga in lymphocytic-predominance HD during a continuous clinical remission does not necessarily indicate recurrence and the need for treatment. It suggests that a biopsy should be performed to determine the nature of the lesion.

Key Words: gallium-67 scintigraphy • lymphoma