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Review
. 2016 Mar;43(3):559-75.
doi: 10.1007/s00259-015-3157-8. Epub 2015 Sep 4.

Clinical impact of (99m)Tc-MAA SPECT/CT-based dosimetry in the radioembolization of liver malignancies with (90)Y-loaded microspheres

Affiliations
Review

Clinical impact of (99m)Tc-MAA SPECT/CT-based dosimetry in the radioembolization of liver malignancies with (90)Y-loaded microspheres

Etienne Garin et al. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2016 Mar.

Abstract

Radioembolization with (90)Y-loaded microspheres is increasingly used in the treatment of primary and secondary liver cancer. Technetium-99 m macroaggregated albumin (MAA) scintigraphy is used as a surrogate of microsphere distribution to assess lung or digestive shunting prior to therapy, based on tumoral targeting and dosimetry. To date, this has been the sole pre-therapeutic tool available for such evaluation. Several dosimetric approaches have been described using both glass and resin microspheres in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and liver metastasis. Given that each product offers different specific activities and numbers of spheres injected, their radiobiological properties are believed to lightly differ. This paper summarizes and discusses the available studies focused on MAA-based dosimetry, particularly concentrating on potential confounding factors like clinical context, tumor size, cirrhosis, previous or concomitant therapy, and product used. In terms of the impact of tumoral dose in HCC, the results were concordant and a response relationship and tumoral threshold dose was clearly identified, especially in studies using glass microspheres. Tumoral dose has also been found to influence survival. The concept of treatment intensification has recently been introduced, yet despite several studies publishing interesting findings on the tumor dose-metastasis relationship, no consensus has been reached, and further clarification is thus required. Nor has the maximal tolerated dose to the liver been well documented, requiring more accurate evaluation. Lung dose was well described, despite recently identified factors influencing its evaluation, requiring further assessment. Conclusion: MAA SPECT/CT dosimetry is accurate in HCC and can now be used in order to achieve a fully customized approach, including treatment intensification. Yet further studies are warranted for the metastasis setting and evaluating the maximal tolerated liver dose.

Keywords: Predictive dosimetry; Prognosis; Selective internal radiation therapy.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Tumoral VOI delineation using MAA SPECT/CT. a) CT slide: huge tumor of 12.1 × 17.4 × 9.7 cm with a large part of central necrosis. b) MAA/SPECT CT tumor volume segmentation. Based on MAA SPECT/CT, tumor volume is only 900 cc due to a large part of necrosis. Using CT segmentation, tumor volume is 1310 cc. Doing the hypothesis of absence of radioactivity uptake in necrosis, tumor dose based on MAA segmentation (excluding necrosis volume) is 1.45 fold higher than tumor dose based on CT segmentation (including necrosis volume)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
MAA and glass miscrosphere uptake discrepancy related to transient arterial vasospasm. Patient with multifocal neuroendocrine liver metastasis with a 5 cm lesion of segment 6. a) Contrast enhanced CT. b) Tumor MAA SPECT uptake with a “tumor/non tumor” uptake ratio (T/NT ratio) of 0.77 for segment 6 lesion. c) Glass microsphere 90Y bremstrahlung SPECT/CT evidencing a better tumor targeting with a T/NT ratio of 3.3 for the same segment 6 lesion. The retrospective analysis of the diagnostic angiography (d) and the therapeutic one (e) shows an arterial vasospasm (black arrow) on the diagnostic angiography with a poor tumoral blush as against no vasospasm and a good tumoral blush (white arrow) on the therapeutic one

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