Effect of trifluoperazine on Tc-99m sestamibi uptake in patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate whether there is an effect of trifluoperazine on Tc-99m methoxyisobutylisonitrile (MIBI) uptake in patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NCLC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 23 patients with biopsy-proven advanced NCLC who had no previous history of chemo-radiotherapy, underwent baseline dual phase planar, single photon emission computed tomography and whole body Tc-99m MIBI scintigraphy performed at 20 and 120 min. After oral administration of trifluoperazine (5 mg, 2 times a day, for 5 days), dual phase Tc-99m MIBI scintigraphy was repeated. For each patient, and for both studies, regions of interest were drawn over the tumor area (T) and over the normal lung area (L) on the contralateral side in transverse slices where tumor was visualized clearly. Then, early and delayed T/L ratios and washout rate (WR) were calculated. RESULTS: Tc-99m MIBI was accumulated in the cancer tissue in all of the patients. Delayed ratio after the oral administration of trifluoperazine (DR2) was significantly higher (P = 0.039) than delayed ratio before trifluoperazine (DR1). We found no significant differences of early ratio before trifluoperazine (ER1) and early ratio after trifluoperazine (ER2), and washout rate before (WR1) and washout rate after trifluoperazine (WR2). CONCLUSION: In patients with advanced NCLC, trifluoperazine treatment in addition to chemotherapy might be useful. However, our results need to be confirmed in larger series of patients.