[Radionuclide determination of the extent of the tumor process in patients with esophageal cancer].

Scintigraphy with 67Ga-citrate and 111In-bleomycin was conducted in 32 esophageal cancer patients, 4 patients with benign esophageal tumors and in 3 patients with scarry-ulcerous esophagitis. A raised accumulation of the radiopharmaceutical (RP) in the esophagus, in 4 cases in the retroperitoneal paraaortic lymph nodes in which a metastatic image was confirmed at computed tomography and diagnostic laparotomy, was observed in all cancer patients. No regularities in the intensity of the accumulation of both radiopharmaceuticals in the esophageal tumor with relation to its histological structure were detected. The advantage of the above radiopharmaceuticals is a possibility to use them for the detection of tumor dissemination and distant metastases in esophageal cancer.