ABSTRACT
A pilot study was carried out in the Nuclear Medicine Department of the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology to learn the diagnostic efficacy of the 99mTc-HMPAO scintigraphy in the detection of cutaneous melanoma, distant and local metastases, in patients with a confirmed histological diagnosis. The planar and/or SPECT scintigraphy was performed in 17 patients and revealed 90% sensitivity for the detection of the disease. We calculated the tumor/background index in all the images obtained and found a value greater than 1 in every case. Thus, we can affirm that the 99mTc-HMPAO accumulation in tumors was higher than the background in all cases. We recommend that this procedure be considered in the follow up of these patients as a new diagnostic method which is very useful in the determination of the patient stage and prognostic evaluation.
