Clinical nuclear medicine
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Clinical nuclear medicine · May 2019
Meta Analysis Comparative StudyComparing the Staging/Restaging Performance of 68Ga-Labeled Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen and 18F-Choline PET/CT in Prostate Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
PET/CT using prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and choline radiotracers is widely used for diagnosis of prostate cancer. However, the roles of and differences in diagnostic performance between these 2 radiotracers for prostate cancer are unclear. The aim of this study was to compare the staging and restaging performance of Ga-labeled PSMA and F-choline PET/CT imaging in prostate cancer. ⋯ For staging and restaging performance in patients with prostate cancer, there was no significant difference between Ga-PSMA PET/CT and F-choline PET/CT. Ga-PSMA PET/CT and F-choline PET/CT have demonstrated high diagnostic performance for accurate staging and restaging in patients with prostate cancer, and thus both should be considered for staging in this disease.
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Clinical nuclear medicine · Dec 2017
ReviewRadioguided Occult Lesion Localization: Technical Procedures and Clinical Applications.
Regarding radioguided surgery, the concept of "radioguided occult lesion localization" (ROLL) is based on both preoperative interventional imaging and intraoperative radioguided detection of a clinically occult neoplastic lesion. ⋯ The terms ROLL and GOSTT have further developed by incorporating novel modalities such as hybrid tracers for simultaneous fluorescence and radioactive signal detection and innovative navigation systems based on mixed-reality protocols.
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Clinical nuclear medicine · Dec 2016
ReviewSentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Cutaneous Melanoma: Standard and New Technical Procedures and Clinical Advances. A Systematic Review of the Literature.
Melanoma is an important public health problem, and its incidence is increasing worldwide. The disease status of regional lymph nodes is the most important prognostic factor in early-stage melanoma patients. Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) was introduced in the early 1990s as a less invasive procedure than complete lymph node dissection to allow histopathologic evaluation of the "sentinel lymph node" (SLN), which is the first node along the lymphatic pathway from a primary tumor. ⋯ This relatively high false-negative rate, greater than those reported in the initial validation studies, points out the importance for the nuclear medicine community to continuously improve their knowledge on the biological behavior of melanoma and to improve the technical aspects that may allow more precise staging. For the SLNB procedure to be accurate, it is of critical importance that all "true" SLNs are identified and removed for examination. The aim of this article is to provide general information about the SLNB procedure in clinical practice highlighting the importance of standardization and accuracy of SLN identification in the light of the most recent technical innovations.
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Clinical nuclear medicine · Dec 2016
ReviewSentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Cutaneous Melanoma: Standard and New Technical Procedures and Clinical Advances. A Systematic Review of the Literature.
Melanoma is an important public health problem, and its incidence is increasing worldwide. The disease status of regional lymph nodes is the most important prognostic factor in early-stage melanoma patients. Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) was introduced in the early 1990s as a less invasive procedure than complete lymph node dissection to allow histopathologic evaluation of the "sentinel lymph node" (SLN), which is the first node along the lymphatic pathway from a primary tumor. ⋯ This relatively high false-negative rate, greater than those reported in the initial validation studies, points out the importance for the nuclear medicine community to continuously improve their knowledge on the biological behavior of melanoma and to improve the technical aspects that may allow more precise staging. For the SLNB procedure to be accurate, it is of critical importance that all "true" SLNs are identified and removed for examination. The aim of this article is to provide general information about the SLNB procedure in clinical practice highlighting the importance of standardization and accuracy of SLN identification in the light of the most recent technical innovations.
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Clinical nuclear medicine · Jul 2014
ReviewSentinel lymph node mapping in melanoma: the issue of false-negative findings.
Management of cutaneous melanoma has changed after introduction in the clinical routine of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for nodal staging. By defining the nodal basin status, SLNB provides a powerful prognostic information. Nevertheless, some debate still surrounds the accuracy of this procedure in terms of false-negative rate. ⋯ The clinical impact of a false-negative SLNB on the prognosis of melanoma patients remains controversial, because the majority of studies have failed to demonstrate overall statistically significant disadvantage in melanoma-specific survival for false-negative SLNB patients compared with true-positive SLNB patients. When new more effective drugs will be available in the adjuvant setting for stage III melanoma patients, the implication of an accurate staging procedure for the sentinel lymph nodes will be crucial for both patients and clinicians. Standardization and accuracy of SLN identification, removal, and analysis are required.