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Vol.37 No.2 contents

Japanese/English

- Original Article -

Comparison of ¹¹C-Methionine PET and ²⁰¹Tl SPECT in the Detection of Lymph Node Metastasis from Lung Canser

Hisayuki Aoyagi^1,2, Yutaka Yamaguchi¹, Tomohisa Yasukawa¹, Kyosan Yoshikawa², Takashi Togawa⁴, Nobuharu Yui⁴, Hideki Kimura⁵, Kazutoshi Suzuki³, Tadaaki Miyamoto² and Hirohiko Tujii^2
1Department of Surgery, Institute of Pulmonary Cancer Research, Chiba University, School of Medicine, ²Division of Radiation Medicine, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, ³Division of Advanced Technology for Medical Imaging, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, ⁴Division of Nuclear Medicine, Chiba Cancer Center Hospital, ⁵Division of Thoracic Surgery, Chiba Cancer Center Hospital

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A comparative study of positron emission tomography (PET) using ¹¹C-methionine and single photon emission tomography (SPECT) of thallium chloride-²⁰¹Tl was performed to detect hilar and mediastinal lymph node metastasis from non-small cell lung cancer. ¹¹C-methionine PET and ²⁰¹Tl SPECT were used in 22 patients with primary lung cancer before surgery. The findings of two modalities were compared with the pathologic findings. PET was judged, using tumor / muscle radioactivity ratio (TMR), by semiquantitative analysis. SPECT was judged visually. The sensitivity of ¹¹C-methionine PET in detecting lymph node metastasis was 79.2%, specificity 91.5% and accuracy 87.3%. Comparative figures for ²⁰¹Tl SPECT were 62.5%, 89.3% and 79.5% respectively. PET actually detected four of five metastatic lymph nodes, the size of which ranged from 7 mm to 9 mm in the short axis and were judged as negative by CT. This indicates that PET can detect even small metastatic lymph nodes. PET distinguishes adjacent metastatic nodes as separate nodes because of its high resolution, and enables us to evaluate each lymph node by semiquantitative analysis. The sensitivity of ¹¹C-methionine PET was superior to that of ²⁰¹Tl SPECT.
key words: ¹¹C-Methionine PET, ²⁰¹TI SPECT, Non-small cell lung cancer, Lymph node metastasis

Received: December 4, 1996
Accepted: February 17, 1997

JJLC 37 (2): 169-177, 1997