Abstract
Biopsy is the standard method for the diagnosis of prostate cancer; however, it is inadequate for the assessment of lymph node invasion. Radionuclide imaging might be useful for both diagnosis and N staging, but it requires high uptake of radiotracers in order to overcome difficulties arising from the anatomy of the region. The aim of this study was to assess whether or not technetium-99m labelled bombesin (99mTc-BN) scan is able to detect prostate cancer and invasion of pelvic lymph nodes. Ten patients were studied with 99mTc-BN, transrectal ultrasonography, biopsy, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. All the patients with cancer were operated on. Planar dynamic scintigraphy and single-photon emission tomography (SPET) were performed after administration of 185 MBq 99mTc-BN. Two patients showed benign adenoma and eight showed cancer at biopsy. The average Gleason's score was 7.5±1.3. 99mTc-BN dynamic planar scan showed hot spots in the prostatic fossa in two of the eight patients with cancer, both of whom had a prostate-specific antigen level higher than 20 ng/ml. In these patients, high uptake inside the prostatic fossa was detected as early as 1 min after injection, before the arrival of radioactivity in the bladder. True positive SPET scans were obtained in all eight patients with cancer. Invasion of the obturator nodes was detected by SPET in three patients, and in all three was confirmed at surgery. Our preliminary data encourage further studies on the prostate with 99mTc-BN. If the high sensitivity of 99mTc-BN SPET is confirmed, this method may play an important role in diagnosing and staging prostate cancer.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Clobes H, Fossa SD, Waere H, Jocam D, Berner A. The immunohistochemical assessment of occult regional lymph node metastases in patients with T3N0M0 prostate cancer before definitive radiotherapy. Br J Urol 2000; 85:270–275.
Park SJ, Miyake H, Hara I, Eto H. Predictors of prostate cancer on repeat transrectal ultrasound-guided systematic prostate biopsy. Int J Urol 2003; 10:68–71.
Feneley MR, Jan H, Granowska M, et al. Imaging with prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) in prostate cancer. Prostate Cancer Dis 2000; 3:47–52.
De Vincentis G, Scopinaro F, Varvarigou A, Ussof W, Schillaci O, Archimandritis S, Corleto V, Longo F, Delle Fave G. Phase I trial of technetium [Leu13] bombesin as cancer seeking agent: possible scintigraphic guide for surgery? Tumori 2002; 88:S28–S30.
Scopinaro F, Varvarigou AD, Ussof W, De Vincentis G, Sourlingas TG, Evangelatos GP, Datsteris J, Archimandritis SC. Technetium labeled bombesin-like peptide: preliminary report on breast cancer uptake in patients. Cancer Biother Radiopharm 2002; 17:327–335.
De Vincentis G, Scopinaro F, Varvarigou AD, Iori F, D'Amico F, Laurenti C, Manganaro L, Paolozzi A. [13 Leu]99mTc Bombesin detects primary prostate cancer [abstract]. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2002; 29:S68.
Varvarigou AD, Scopinaro F, Leondiadis L, Corleto V, Schillaci O, De Vincentis G, Sourlingas TG, Sekeri-Pataryas KE, Evangelatos GP, Leonti A, Xanthopoulos S, Delle Fave G, Archimandritis SC. Synthesis, chemical, radiochemical and radiobiological evaluation of a new99mTc-labelled bombesin-like peptide. Cancer Biother Radiopharm 2002; 17:317–326.
Scopinaro F, De Vincentis G, Ussov W, Remediani S, Barone SM, Massa R, Marchei P, Petracca G. Fast cancer uptake of [13Leu] bombesin-99mTc in humans [abstract]. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2002; 29 Suppl 1:S163.
Scopinaro F, Varvarigou A, Ussof W, De Vincentis G, Archimandritis S, Evangelatos G, Corleto V, Pulcini A, Capoccetti F, Remediani S, Massa R. Breast cancer takes up99mTc bombesin. A preliminary report. Tumori 2002; 88:S25–S28.
Van de Wiele C, Dumont F, Vanden Broecke R, Oosterlinck W, Cocquyt V,Serreyn R, Peers S, Thornback J, Slegers G, Dierckx RA. Technetium-99m RP527, a GRP analogue for visualisation of GRP receptor-expressing malignancies: a feasibility study. Eur J Nucl Med 2000; 27:1694–1699.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scopinaro, F., De Vincentis, G., Varvarigou, A.D. et al. 99mTc-bombesin detects prostate cancer and invasion of pelvic lymph nodes. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 30, 1378–1382 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-003-1261-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-003-1261-7