A clinical study by the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Prince of Wales and Sydney Childrens Hospital has shown the efficacy of a radiopharmaceutical produced by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation for the better management of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumours, and surgery is the only known chance of cure for patients with NSCLC. This study showed that the radiopharmaceutical F-18 FDG imaged on a modified gamma camera known as hybrid Positron Emission Tomography (PET ) led to a change in patient management in 30 per cent of the cases examined.
FDG, or fluorodeoxyglucose, is labelled with fluorine- 18, a radioisotope with a 110 minute half life. Produced at the ANSTO-run National Medical Cyclotron at Camperdown, Sydney, FDG is valuable for its ability to find glucose-consuming tumours anywhere in the body.
The F-18 emits gamma rays which can be picked up by the hybrid PET camera for diagnosis. The value of FDG-PET imaging to doctors is that it exploits the biological tendency for malignant cells to take up more glucose than benign cells.
The supply of F-18 FDG, for the study of 60 patients, was funded by the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering.
In NSW, five-year survival rates for patients diagnosed with lung cancer between 1980 and 1995 was 10 per cent in men and 12 per cent in women. It is hoped that newer methods of diagnosis will lead to more effective surgical procedures, and improved survival rates.
The article "Staging and Managing Lung Tumors using F-18 FDG Coincidence Detection" is published in Clinical Nuclear Medicine, May, 2001. The authors are Marcin Roman, Monica Rossleigh, Socrates Angelides, Brenda Walker and Jenny Dixon.