In vivo evaluation of three different 99mTc-labelled radiopharmaceuticals for sentinel lymph node identification

This work was designed to compare sentinel lymph node (SLN) uptake of 99mTc-labelled human serum albumin colloid (99mTc-HSAC), 99mTc-labelled antimony sulphur colloid (99mTc-SC) and a 99mTc-labelled dextran 70 solution (99mTc-Dx) and their selectivity in the identification of this node in the right rear footpad (RRF) of normal mice and tumour bearing mice. Radiopharmaceutical uptake in the SLN (popliteal lymph node) and the lumbar lymph node (LLN), the second lymphatic node station from RRF, were measured at different time points post-intradermal or intratumoural injection into the RRF of NIH normal mice and of Balb/c mice harbouring the murine mammary tumour M2. 99mTc-HSAC uptake in the SLN was significantly higher than LLN uptake. The 99mTc-SC demonstrated high uptake in SLN, but accumulation in LLN was also high. 99mTc-Dx showed low uptakes in both SLN and LLN. The intradermal injection resulted in a more effective radiopharmaceutical accumulation in SLN than did the intratumoural inoculation. Data also show that increments in tumour volume reduced radiopharmaceutical uptake in the SLN. Our results show that 99mTc-HSAC exhibits the highest uptake in the SLN combined with the smallest amounts of radiopharmaceutical passing through to the LLN. Therefore, 99mTc-HSAC appears to be the best radiopharmaceutical for sentinel node detection.