SNM: Radiomicrosphere therapy+SPECT/CT targets cancer treatments
SALT LAKE CITY—Combining radiomicrosphere therapy with SPECT/CT may be more effective and lead to fewer complications than conventional planar imaging with a gamma camera, based on research presented at the 57th SNM annual meeting this week.
“Radiomicrosphere therapy guided by molecular imaging is an emerging area of radiotherapy and has the potential to target treatments for cancer patients,” said principal investigator Ron Young, CNMT, clinical manager of nuclear medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. “This technique allows us to provide the most effective and individualized therapy with minimal complications for the patient.”
Radiomicrosphere therapy involves the injection of tiny highly radioactive beads that “nestle up” with and destroy cancerous tumors. Technologists and physicians must carefully plan each patient’s treatment using molecular imaging to ensure that the beads do not wander off into other areas of the body because the therapy can damage healthy tissues. Physicians have used conventional planar imaging with a gamma camera to predict where the particles are going to travel and potentially destroy normal tissue.
However, SPECT/CT may provide the best tool for determining the likely path of the microbeads, Young said.
With this form of radiotherapy, also called radioembolization, tiny beads are impregnated with a radioisotope and injected into the liver with a catheter inserted through the groin. Prior to therapy, technologists and nuclear medicine physicians simulate therapy by injecting patients with technetium-99m (Tc99m)-MAA, which emulates the migration pattern the spheres will take. Molecular and x-ray imaging with SPECT/CT technology provide the essential information interventional radiologists need to then block blood vessels surrounding the targeted organ with small metal coils, effectively isolating the microbeads during therapy.
In this study, 99 patients underwent conventional planar imaging with gamma camera technology followed by imaging with SPECT/CT prior to therapy. Young reported that only nine patients out of the 99 showed potential for “shunting” or bleeding of the radioactive particles into other areas of the body, leading to the destruction of healthy tissues.
The use of SPECT/CT alone indicated that 23 patients, more than double that of more conventional imaging, showed potential for complications, according to Young and colleagues. Another patient’s hepatic vein, the main blood vessel into the liver, was shown to be obstructed by the tumor, which informed the treating physician that therapy would need to be altered due to this obstruction.
In this case, SPECT/CT was able to uncover a previously unknown complication that changed the course of treatment for the patient, the researchers reported.
According to the study, SPECT/CT makes radiomicrosphere therapy a more powerful and safer tool for cancer therapy.
“Radiomicrosphere therapy guided by molecular imaging is an emerging area of radiotherapy and has the potential to target treatments for cancer patients,” said principal investigator Ron Young, CNMT, clinical manager of nuclear medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. “This technique allows us to provide the most effective and individualized therapy with minimal complications for the patient.”
Radiomicrosphere therapy involves the injection of tiny highly radioactive beads that “nestle up” with and destroy cancerous tumors. Technologists and physicians must carefully plan each patient’s treatment using molecular imaging to ensure that the beads do not wander off into other areas of the body because the therapy can damage healthy tissues. Physicians have used conventional planar imaging with a gamma camera to predict where the particles are going to travel and potentially destroy normal tissue.
However, SPECT/CT may provide the best tool for determining the likely path of the microbeads, Young said.
With this form of radiotherapy, also called radioembolization, tiny beads are impregnated with a radioisotope and injected into the liver with a catheter inserted through the groin. Prior to therapy, technologists and nuclear medicine physicians simulate therapy by injecting patients with technetium-99m (Tc99m)-MAA, which emulates the migration pattern the spheres will take. Molecular and x-ray imaging with SPECT/CT technology provide the essential information interventional radiologists need to then block blood vessels surrounding the targeted organ with small metal coils, effectively isolating the microbeads during therapy.
In this study, 99 patients underwent conventional planar imaging with gamma camera technology followed by imaging with SPECT/CT prior to therapy. Young reported that only nine patients out of the 99 showed potential for “shunting” or bleeding of the radioactive particles into other areas of the body, leading to the destruction of healthy tissues.
The use of SPECT/CT alone indicated that 23 patients, more than double that of more conventional imaging, showed potential for complications, according to Young and colleagues. Another patient’s hepatic vein, the main blood vessel into the liver, was shown to be obstructed by the tumor, which informed the treating physician that therapy would need to be altered due to this obstruction.
In this case, SPECT/CT was able to uncover a previously unknown complication that changed the course of treatment for the patient, the researchers reported.
According to the study, SPECT/CT makes radiomicrosphere therapy a more powerful and safer tool for cancer therapy.