[The diagnostic value of the 67gallium-scintigraphy in malignant melanoma (author's transl)]

In 24 melanoma patients body regions with suspicion of metastatic spread were scanned with 67Ga-Citrate. Twenty-two out of 28 melanoma metastases (79%) could be scintigraphically visualized. Falsely negative scans were particularly frequent with small, indurated skin metastases, whereas falsely positive scans were not observed in this study. By means of in vitro experiments it was shown that the uptake of 67Ga into a human melanoma cell line was temperature dependent and reached a maximal value at 37 degrees C after 2 hrs of incubation. Furthermore, it was found that under the same in vitro conditions our melanoma cells bound and released 67Ga differently from 51Cr. From the release studies it was concluded that 67Ga unlike 51Cr does not form a stabile intracellular complex with cell proteins.