Combined use of 99mTc-sestamibi and 99mTc-V-DMSA in the assessment of chemotherapy effectiveness in patients with multiple myeloma.

Unlabelled: This study determined the role of the combined use of (99m)Tc-sestamibi and (99m)Tc-pentavalent dimercaptosuccinic acid (V-DMSA) scintigraphy in evaluating the effectiveness of chemotherapy in patients with multiple myeloma.

Methods: In 20 patients with multiple myeloma who had received or were receiving chemotherapy, (99m)Tc-sestamibi and (99m)Tc-V-DMSA scanning was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of chemotherapy.

Results: In group A (11 patients with active disease), 42 (99m)Tc-sestamibi-positive lesions were found. Thirty-seven of those lesions were also positive for (99m)Tc-V-DMSA uptake, as were 16 additional lesions (nonactive) (NAL). Thus, in group A, the total number of positive lesions (TPL) detected was 58 and the NAL/TPL ratio was 16:58. In group B (9 patients in remission), 5 (99m)Tc-sestamibi-positive lesions were found. A further 22 lesions were also positive for (99m)Tc-V-DMSA uptake. Thus, in group B, the NAL/TPL ratio was 22:27. Therefore, the NAL/TPL ratios considered to represent effectively treated lesions were 27.6% and 81.5% for groups A and B, respectively.

Conclusion: Combined use of the 2 agents allows the effectiveness of chemotherapy to be evaluated through a comparison of NAL and TPL multiple myeloma lesions even in the absence of a baseline study.