Next generation of radiotracers for sentinel lymph node biopsy: What is still necessary to establish new imaging paradigms?

Publication date: Available online 1 November 2018Source: Revista Española de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular (English Edition)Author(s): Sergi Vidal-Sicart, David R. Vera, Renato A. Valdés OlmosAbstractSentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy is now the standard of care for regional staging in several solid tumors. The interstitial administration of a radiotracer around the primary tumor provide the possibility to sequentially obtain images with a gamma camera and visualize lymphatic mapping and the SLN. There is, however, a large geographical variability in those radiotracers and nanocolloids ranging from 15 to 100 nm are most widely employed in Europe, while filtered and unfiltered 99mTc-sulfur colloid (range 20–1000 nm) is usually used in the USA with different drawbacks in its use. The new radiotracer 99mTc-Tilmanocept, designed specifically for the identification of SLNs and recently becoming commercially available in USA and Europe, appears to have the potency to overcome the shortcomings described for the conventional radiotracers used until now for SLN biopsy and at the same time to transform current imaging paradigms.After delineating the challenges for the next generation of radiotracers, this paper discusses the properties of 99mTc-Tilmanocept, its validation process for SLN biopsy and its emerging clinical applications in various malignancies.ResumenLa biopsia del ganglio centinela (GC) es, en la actualidad, la técnica estándar para la estadificación...
Source: Revista Espanola de Medicina Nuclear e Imagen Molecular - Category: Nuclear Medicine Source Type: research