Current status of radioimmunodetection.

Overview

Radioimmunodetection is a nuclear medicine technique that depends on in vivo detection of localization of antibodies and antibody forms carrying radioactivity for the purpose of diagnosis in patients with cancer. Current methods take advantage of tracers suitable for high resolution gamma-camera imaging, such as 99mTc and 111In, for common tumors, such as colon and lung cancers. In addition, tracers such as 125I have been used for the intraoperative detection of metastatic deposits. These methods detect from 75 to 90% of metastatic deposits with high specificity, and typically contribute important diagnostic information, even in 25-40% of patients with occult disease.