Abstract
Many investigators tried to find a specific scanning agent for the diagnosis of malignant tumors.
However, as yet, success has been limited. Recently, radioisotopic elements such as 131I fi brinogen, 97Ga citrate and 99mTc compound have been introduced to nuclear medicine. Maeda et al. reported that 57Co Bleomycin can be used as a radioisotopic scanning agent for diagnosis of a variety of human cancers. Since this discovery, the application of this method to Otolaryngology has been investigated in our hospital. 57Co Bleomycin was administered to sixteen patients with tumors which were histologically diagnosed as malignant, and was compared with 169Yb citrate injections. In arterial infusion cases, 57Co Bleomycin 200 Ci was injected into a polyethylene tube, which was instered into the A. tempolaris superficialis. 500 Ci was administered intravenously. Twenty-four hours after injection, scintiphotographys were taken with a scintillation camera (PHO GAMMA HP Nuclear Chicago.) Results were:(1) Scintiphotography revealed positive results in thirteen out of sixteen cases; ten of these were classified as squamous cell carcinoma. The remaining three were classified as malignant lymphoma, lymphoepithelial carcinoma and plasma cell cytoma. (2) With the administration of 57Co Bleomycin, high radioactivity was found only in tumor tissue. Tumor localization by this agent coincided with X-ray photo findings and surgery findings. The tumor forms and inner construction details were revealed more clearly by 57Co Bleomycin than by 169Yb citrate.
