Added-value of SPECT/CT in Patients Undergoing LM/SL for Gynecological Cancers

Nodal staging is a key-step in pre-treatment assessment of gynecological cancers. In recent years, lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymphadenectomy (LM/SL) as a minimally invasive pelvic lymph nodes staging has been successfully evaluated in women with early stage of vulvar cancer, cervical cancer, and endometrial cancer. Such a technique may offer several valuable advantages: a) it is readily applicable in clinical routine using a safe, inexpensive, and reproducible protocol; b) it may help to avoid the cost and the morbidity of unnecessary lymphadenectomy in the majority of cases with uninvolved sentinel lymph nodes; c) it has the potential to guide the surgeon to nodal regions that are not routinely dissected (i.e. pre-sacral, para-aortic nodes) and to identify micro-metastases that would have been ignored otherwise; d) it also offers the basis for sophisticated pathological analysis to detect sub-microscopic nodal metastases using either immunohistochemical or molecular biological techniques. So far, within the abdomen and the pelvis, the LM/SL technique alone is often blinded to the accurate localization of SLNs. The integration of computed tomography (CT) to single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) devices in a single gantry (SPECT/CT) has allowed a significant gain in terms of diagnostic accuracy and anatomic precision; clinical examples include malignant melanoma, head and neck cancer, breast cancer, and bladder cancer. In a seminal series of 26 patients with cervical cancer (Zhang et al., 2006), SPECT/CT was recently found superior to conventional planar imaging for detection of SLN and accurate localization. A more recent study (Kushner al., 2007) has also highlighted the technical feasibility and the clinical added-value of a low-dose SPECT/CT in a series of 20 patients with early stage cervical cancer (IA2-IIA) who underwent LM/SL. In the light of the encouraging data from literature and our own preliminary clinical experience, we hypothesized that the use of LM/SL plus SPECT/CT may be of clinical interest in patients with gynecological cancers.

Sex

Female

Minimum age

18 Years

Inclusion Criteria:

* Patients with histologically proven gynecological cancers
* Patients with FIGO IA2 and IB1 cervical cancers
* Cervical cancer patients will be scheduled for radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymph node dissection
* Patients with FIGO IB and II vulvar cancers and those of patients with FIGO III with clinically negative regional lymph nodes
* Vulvar cancer patients will be scheduled for vulvectomy and inguinal lymph node dissection
* Informed consent signed by the patient, the gynaecologist, and the nuclear medicine physician referees

Exclusion Criteria:

* Patients with no histological evidence of gynecological cancer
* Patient with regionally advanced disease or metastatic disease
* Patients with clinically and/or radiologically evident regional lymph node metastases
* Patients who are not scheduled for radical surgery and lymph node dissection
* Patients with physical and/or psychological contraindications
* Recent study in Nuclear Medicine with long half-time isotopes (i.e. T ½ \>48h; 111In, 67Ga, 201Tl, 131I ) performed within 1 week preceding the LM/SL
* Pregnant or lactating patients

• BACKGROUNDKushner DM, Connor JP, Wilson MA, Hafez GR, Chappell RJ, Stewart SL, Hartenbach EM. Laparoscopic sentinel lymph node mapping for cervix cancer--a detailed evaluation and time analysis. Gynecol Oncol. 2007 Sep;106(3):507-12. doi: 10.1016/j.ygyno.2007.04.031. Epub 2007 Jun 8. PMID 17560635
• BACKGROUNDZhang WJ, Zheng R, Wu LY, Li XG, Li B, Chen SZ. [Clinical application of sentinel lymph node detection to early stage cervical cancer]. Ai Zheng. 2006 Feb;25(2):224-8. Chinese. PMID 16480592
• BACKGROUNDBelhocine T, Kridelka F, Thille A, De Barsy C, Foidart-Willems J, Hustinx R, Rigo P. Staging of primary cervical cancers: the role of nuclear medicine. Crit Rev Oncol Hematol. 2003 Jun;46(3):275-84. doi: 10.1016/s1040-8428(03)00027-1. PMID 12791427
• BACKGROUNDVan der Zee AG, Oonk MH, De Hullu JA, Ansink AC, Vergote I, Verheijen RH, Maggioni A, Gaarenstroom KN, Baldwin PJ, Van Dorst EB, Van der Velden J, Hermans RH, van der Putten H, Drouin P, Schneider A, Sluiter WJ. Sentinel node dissection is safe in the treatment of early-stage vulvar cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2008 Feb 20;26(6):884-9. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2007.14.0566. PMID 18281661
• BACKGROUNDLevenback CF. How safe is sentinel lymph node biopsy in patients with vulvar cancer? J Clin Oncol. 2008 Feb 20;26(6):828-9. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2007.14.7124. No abstract available. PMID 18281651
• BACKGROUNDLevenback CF. Status of sentinel lymph nodes in cervical cancer. Gynecol Oncol. 2007 Oct;107(1 Suppl 1):S18-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ygyno.2007.07.039. Epub 2007 Aug 29. No abstract available. PMID 17761270
• BACKGROUNDvan de Lande J, Torrenga B, Raijmakers PG, Hoekstra OS, van Baal MW, Brolmann HA, Verheijen RH. Sentinel lymph node detection in early stage uterine cervix carcinoma: a systematic review. Gynecol Oncol. 2007 Sep;106(3):604-13. doi: 10.1016/j.ygyno.2007.05.010. Epub 2007 Jul 12.