Role of thallium-201 in the diagnosis of solitary bone lesions

Thallium-201 is known to accumulate in malignant tumours. In this work we are evaluating the role of thallium in differentiating benign from malignant solitary bone lesions in 28 patients with solitary bone lesions on 99Tcm-MDP bone scans. Lesions' uptake of 201Tl was evaluated using visual assessment and lesion to background ratio. We found significant uptake with a mean lesion to background ratio of 4.27 in malignant lesions and no or faint uptake with a mean lesion to background ratio of 1.37 in benign lesions.