Evaluation of malignant and benign lung lesions with 99Tcm-tetrofosmin

99Tcm-tetrofosmin planar imaging was performed in 30 patients with malignant and benign lung lesions. There were 21 cases of primary lung cancer (10 squamous cell, 5 small cell, 4 adenocarcinoma and 2 large cell) and 9 benign lung lesions (4 pneumonia, 3 tuberculosis, 1 infected bronchiectasis and 1 bronchiectasis obliterans). Anterior and posterior planar thorax images were obtained 30 min after the intravenous injection of 740 MBq (20 mCi) of 99Tcm-tetrofosmin. Visual and quantitative evaluations were performed. For the quantitative evaluation, regions of interest were drawn over the lesioned area (L) and over the contralateral non-lesioned area (N). Of 21 malignant primary lesions; 19 (90%) showed 99Tcm-tetrofosmin accumulation. Four (44%) of the nine benign lung lesions (3 cases of pneumonia and the one case of active tuberculosis) showed uptake. The mean L/N ratios for the malignant and benign lesions were 1.63 +/- 0.29 and 1.64 +/- 0.19, respectively. There were no significant differences (P > 0.05) in the L/N ratios of the malignant and benign lesions or the various histological types of cancer. In conclusion, 99Tcm-tetrofosmin was highly sensitive (90%) in detecting malignant lung lesions, but it had poor specificity (55%).