Tumor scanning with gallium 67.

IT IS OBVIOUS that for most, but not all, forms of cancer the effectiveness of treatment can be enhanced by early diagnosis and by accurate assessment of the extent of the disease after diagnosis. Methods for diagnosis and staging are improving progressively, and an important area of progress is in diagnostic nuclear medicine. Some radioisotopic procedures are applicable to only one organ, some are useful for only one specific type of tumor, and some disclose the tumor only as an area that fails to take up radioactively labeled material in an organ that normally shows relatively high concentration. Of particular interest is the availability of a few agents that localize selectively in a wide variety of tumors wherever they may be located. An example of the latter is gallium 67. Imaging with gallium citrate Ga 67 is proving to be distinctly useful, although it is not uniformly helpful and usually