Clinical and technical considerations for imaging colorectal cancers with technetium-99m-labeled antiCEA Fab' fragment.

OBJECTIVE: Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer, after lung and breast cancers. Approximately 133,500 Americans develop colorectal cancer annually and approximately 54,900 die of the disease. As many as 600,000 individuals in the US are under care after surgery for colorectal cancer. After reading this article, the nuclear medicine technologist will be able to: (a) describe the role of Arcitumomab in evaluating and managing patients with recurrent colorectal carcinoma metastasizing to the liver; (b) discuss the clinical use of CEA-Scan (Immunomedics, Inc., Morris Plains, NJ) and its overall imaging performance characteristics and sensitivity related to specific anatomical sites compared to conventional diagnostic modalities; (c) describe radiopharmaceutical preparation and quality control; (d) identify the pertinent patient history before starting the test; and (e) explain the imaging procedure, processing and display of data to optimize study interpretation.