Investigations of breast masses with technetium-99m labeled anti-mucin antibody and technetium-99m-MIBI

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of radioimmunoimaging (RII) with 99mTc-anti-mucin McAb in detecting breast cancer and to compare with accuracy of 99mTc-MIBI in detecting primary breast cancer and lymph node metastasis. 17 patients (included 2 postoperation patients) with suspected breast lesions with/without axillary lymph node metastasis were included in this study. All patients received intravenous injection of 740-925 MBq of 99mTc-McAb. 9 of 17 patients received 740 MBq of 99mTc-MIBI injection at the interval of 2-3 days after McAb injection of the comparison study of McAb and MIBI. At 2 4 ,5 and 24 hrs postinjection of McAb, or at 5 min and 1.5-2 hrs postinjection of MIBI, planar lateral and anterior views with 1000 k to 2000 k counts were obtained. After operation, we found 6 of 17 patients with benign disease, others with malignant cancer. RII showed positive images in 8 of 9 primary cancer patients, with sensitivity of 88.9%. In the malignant group, 6 of 11 had axillary lymph node metastasis. Localisation of McAb in the axillary lymph node metastasis was observed observed in 5 of them. The sensitivity was 83.33%. 6 patients with benign breast lesions and 1 patient with post-operative breast cancer without recurrence showed negative findings (TN) on McAb scan. For the comparison study of 9 patients, all of 5 primary breast lesions and 2 axillary lymph node metastasis in these 5 patients were seen by both imaging procedures. MIBI gave false positive image of one reactive proliferation lesion in a patient with ductal cancer. 4 benign lesions on McAb and 3 of these 4 lesions on MIBI images were negative. One false positive lesion was seen on 5 min MIBI image. Both McAb and MIBI were sensitive in breast cancer imaging, McAb was more specific in detecting primary breast cancer and axillary lymph node metastasis