Gallium-67 uptake in histological variants of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a correlative study

Introduction: The malignant lymphomas are the fifth most common neoplasm in both men and women. Staging, re-staging and treatment response evaluation pose a difficult task in many patients of lymphomas. Histological variants in both Hodgkin's and Non-Hodgkin's types of lymphoma greatly affect the response to treatment and overall prognosis.Objective: This study was conducted to correlate the degree of abnormal Gallium-67 uptake with the histological variants of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. This project was a part of the study to see the ability of Gallium-67 scintigraphy to predict the response to chemotherapy early in the course of therapy.Material & Methods: 65 patients were included in the study with a mean age of 25 years. All patients had undergone medical imaging, bone marrow biopsy and histopathology.Results: Sixty-five patients were classified according to the REAL classification. 11 patients were of T-cell type, 50 were of B-cell type and 4 were anaplastic. 46 showed gallium-67 uptake in the lesions, whereas 19 (29.2%) had no discernable Gallium-67 uptake.Conclusion: There was no correlation between histological sub-types and Gallium-67 uptake in all sub-types of NHL.