Is scintigraphy necessary to detect migration of (125)I seeds after brachytherapy for early prostate cancer?

We investigated whether scintigraphy was superior to radiography for detecting migrated seeds after brachytherapy for prostate cancer.

We studied 57 patients with early prostate cancer who were treated with free (125)I transperineal brachytherapy.

Scintigraphy was used to detect seed migration on postoperative day (POD) 1, radiography was used on POD 2, and both tests were used on POD 30.

The total number of implanted seeds in this study was 3,753 in 57 patients. Overall, there were 19 seed migrations in 12 patients. On POD 1, there were 4 seed migrations in 4 patients that were detected by scintigraphy. On POD 2, there were 10 seed migrations in 9 patients that were detected by radiography. On POD 30, 17 seed migrations were detected in 10 patients by radiography and 18 seeds migrations were detected by scintigraphy. However, 1 seed migration which was located outside of the detectable range of radiography was detected only by scintigraphy.

Both scintigraphy and radiography have similar abilities to detect migrated seeds 1 month after (125)I brachytherapy for prostate cancer. While both tests have advantages and disadvantages, it is reasonable to only use radiography if scintigraphy is not available.

International journal of clinical oncology. 2015 Sep 22 [Epub ahead of print]

Yu Odagaki, Makoto Ohori, Mana Yoshimura, Jun Nakshima, Yoshio Ohno, Ryuji Mikami, Hidetsugu Nakayama, Koichi Tokuuye, Masaaki Tachibana

Department of Urology, Tokyo Medical University, 6-7-1 Nishi-shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo-to, 160-0023, Japan. , Department of Urology, Tokyo Medical University, 6-7-1 Nishi-shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo-to, 160-0023, Japan. Department of Radiology, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo-to, 160-0023, Japan. , Department of Urology, Tokyo Medical University, 6-7-1 Nishi-shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo-to, 160-0023, Japan. , Department of Urology, Tokyo Medical University, 6-7-1 Nishi-shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo-to, 160-0023, Japan. , Department of Radiology, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo-to, 160-0023, Japan. , Department of Radiology, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo-to, 160-0023, Japan. , Department of Radiology, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo-to, 160-0023, Japan. , Department of Urology, Tokyo Medical University, 6-7-1 Nishi-shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo-to, 160-0023, Japan.

PubMed