67Ga scintigraphy of patients with primary lung cancer during past 7 years in our clinic

67Ga scintigraphy is widely used for the purpose of detecting neoplastic lesions. We evaluated it in 101 patients with histologically proven pulmonary cancer. With respect to uptake of gallium-67, different tumor cell types showed somewhat different sensitivity to the 67Ga scan. On the basis of histological findings, the positive rates with gallium-67 for squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, small cell carcinoma, large cell carcinoma and adenosquamous carcinoma, were 90.4%, 87.0%, 88.2%, 100% and 100% respectively. The smallest primary tumor observed by us to be positive on 67Ga scanning was 1.7 cm in diameter. The larger lesions had a higher percentage of positive delineation, while the smaller lesions had a lower percentage. Through 67Ga scintigraphy is non-invasive and useful for detecting unexpected tumors in any part of the body, it is important to consider the limitations of this examination. Usefulness of 67Ga scintigraphy was somewhat limited for diagnosing bronchogenic carcinoma at an early stage or in small foci. 67Ga scintigraphy in primary lung cancer should prove to be helpful in asessing the extent of disease. (author)