Role of radioimmunoscintigraphy and SPET in the diagnosis of patients with malignant melanoma

The aim of the study was to compare the effectiveness of radioimmunoscintigraphy and single photon emission tomography in the diagnosis of malignant melanoma. Radioimmunoscintigraphy was carried out on 47 patients with stage I to IV malignant melanoma. Seven patients had primary melanoma; the remaining patients had 57 clinically suspected lesions. 99Tcm-F(ab)2 was injected intraveneously or subcutaneously. Imaging was site dependent with the highest sensitivity in the lymph nodes (96%). Sensitivity was lowest in cutaneous and subcutaneous lesions using planar scintigraphy (20.5%) although it was higher using single photon emission tomography (42.8%). It is concluded that the advantages of radioimmunoscintigraphy over other methods of investigation are its specificity and selectivity. It therefore has potential as a diagnostic tool concerning the status of melanoma patients. (author)