99mTc-tilmanocept for lymphoscintigraphy

• DOI: 10.2217/iim.13.11
• Publication Date: 2013-03-26T11:30:12Z
• Authors: Christopher A Puleo; Claudia Berman; Jaime L Montilla-...; Jonathan S Zager; Vernon K Sondak
• Keywords: 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; 3. Good health

Vital blue dyes and radiolabeled colloids are widely used globally for intraoperative lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node biopsy. Until very recently, however, no radiolabeled agents were specifically approved for lymphoscintigraphy and none have been tested in prospective clinical trials. 99mTc-tilmanocept was designed for use in lymphoscintigraphy and sentinel node biopsy, and has been evaluated in Phase II and Phase III clinical trials. In nonrandomized, prospective comparisons with vital blue dye, 99mTc-tilmanocept reproducibly localized in regional lymph nodes after injection at the site of primary breast carcinomas and melanomas undergoing sentinel node biopsy, detecting nearly all visibly blue nodes and identifying more tumor-containing nodes overall, without missing any blue tumor-containing nodes. A Phase III trial in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas, with all patients undergoing complete node dissection after removal of the nodes detected with 99mTc-tilmanocept, is currently underway...