The clinical value of ⁹⁹Tc^m-depreotide scintigraphy in differentiating malignant from benign lesions in the lung

Depreotide is a synthetic 10-aminoacid peptide which is comprised of a somatostain receptor binding sequence and a technetium coordinating sequence. A meta-analysis is performed to estimate the diagnostic efficiency of ⁹⁹Tc^m-depreotide scintigraphy. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of ⁹⁹Tc^m-depreotide SPECT in distinguishing pulmonary lesions were, respectively, 94.2% (95% confidence interval (CI):90.5%, 97.9%), 61.2% (95% CI:50.7%,71.7%), 81.6%, 81.1% and 83.2%. In patients with a small solitary pulmonary nodule (<1.5 cm) and positive ⁹⁹Tc^m-depreotide SPECT, the risk of malignancy is high. On the other hand, patients with a large solitary pulmonary nodule (>1.5 cm) and a negative scan may be recommended for serial CT follow-up, since the sensitivity in those subjects was high.