Diagnostic nuclear medicine in pediatric oncology-what we should know before scanning?

Abstract

Cancer is second only to trauma as a cause of death in children, accounting for approximately 10% of all childhood deaths. The application of radioisotopes in the treatment of malignant diseases in children consists of detecting and estimating the degree of tumour spread by application of tumour-specific and non-specific radiopharmaceuticals, as well as the treatment of some malignant diseases. Paramount to any successful nuclear medicine examination is the establishment of acquisition protocols that allow high quality images to be obtained while ALARA principles are followed. Pediatric-specific issues should be anticipated and addressed in the planning of the studies to maximize the utility of the technique in this challenging group of patients, so the goal of this article is to summarize general prerequisites for the application of nuclear medicine diagnostic procedures in pediatric oncology patients. © 2012, Oncology Institute of Vojvodina, Sremska Kamenica.