Meta-iodobenzylguanidine (mIBG) scans in neuroblastoma

This paper reports that a sufficient amount of data have been accumulated to accept MIBG scans as a major modality in neuroblastoma staging, due to the tumor specificity of the tracer, playing the same role in neuroblastoma as has radioactive Iodide for four decades in differentiated thyroid cancer. The use of MIBG is simple and safe, especially when labelled with pure I-123. Even if in most cases it is possible to stage correctly a neuroblastoma patient with a CT and bone marrow aspirates or biopsy, MIBG scans provide more accurate information on the tumor burden in the whole body and may indicate additional CT images at a distance from the primary or additional bone marrow biopsies. When positive, MIBG scans replace conventional TC-99 m HMDP bone scans, and may reduce the frequency of CHBMS. When repeated during therapy, MIBG scans provide valuable information to quantitate a partial response and to confirm a complete response