Use of radioactive bleomycin to detect malignant intracranial tumors

Abstract

✓ A new isotopic method for the detection of cerebral tumors using labeled bleomycin is described. In a series of 104 patients, bleomycin was found superior to technetium-99m for the diagnosis of intracranial metastatic lesions; in 50% of the cases, bleomycin revealed metastases undetected by the Tc-99m, particularly in the posterior fossa. This method also provides valuable data for the differentiation of gliomas from metastases.

Uptake of bleomycin by human brain tumours

“…Our observations from the same types of tumour were 0.73, 0.51, 0.34, and 0.32 tg/g in that order. There is a remarkable agreement between these two results, and our observations appear to support the demonstration by Mamo et al (1973). Takeuchi (1969) made the first systematic clinical application of BLM to the treatment of brain tumours.…”

“…At any rate, our results indicate that the mechanism which underlies the incorporation of BLM into brain tumour tissue might be different from that of Tc-99m pertechnetate. This view supports the recent observation by Mamo et al (1973). They developed a new isotope method for the detection of cerebral tumour using 57Co-BLM and demonstrated the superiority of this method to that using Tc-99m for the diagnosis of malignant intracranial tumours, especially of metastatic lesions in the brain.…”

“…(1966a, b) is a kind of cytostatic antibiotic complex produced by a strain of Streptomyces verticillus, and was found by Ichikawa et al (1967Ichikawa et al ( , 1968 to be highly effective against human squamous cell carcinoma. These authors observed relatively high concentration of BLM in the skin after subcutaneous injection in mice, and suggested that the therapeutic effect on squamous cell carcinoma might be related to the high concentration of BLM in the skin Umezawa et al, 1967Umezawa et al, , 1968a.Recently, Mamo et al (1973) found that radioactive BLM (57Co-BLM) was superior to technetium-99m (Tc-99m) for the diagnosis of malignant intracranial tumours, and Takeuchi et al (1969, 1972) reported clinical effects of BLM against brain tumours.The purpose of the present study is to investigate the uptake of BLM by various types of brain tumours and to study the correlation between the distribution of BLM and the type and characteristics of brain tumours. …”

“…Recently, Mamo et al (1973) found that radioactive BLM (57Co-BLM) was superior to technetium-99m (Tc-99m) for the diagnosis of malignant intracranial tumours, and Takeuchi et al (1969, 1972) reported clinical effects of BLM against brain tumours.…”

Labeled antibiotics: Positron tomography as a tool for measuring tissue distribution

“…The initial report was promising but there has not been any follow-up to the initial publication [Sharma et al, 1986]. Bleomycin has also been labeled with the conventional nuclear medicine isotopes 99m Tc [Mamo et al, 1973] and indium-111 [e.g., Jekunen et al, 1996]. However, the focus of these studies has been on cancer imaging or chemotherapy, rather than on antibiotic properties of the complexes.…”