With the main goal of early diagnosis of various cancers, Radiopharmaceutical Science is directly linked to the best possible prognosis and the therapeutic approach that will be chosen afterwards.
The objective of this dissertation is the synthesis, characterization, and comparative evaluation of multimodal 99mTc and 68Ga imaging complexes, which carry as a pharmacophore moiety mannosylated dextrans of different molecular weight.
The radiolabeled mannosylated dextrans have been extensively studied for use in sentinel lymph node detection (SLND) and cancer diagnosis, and consist of a dextran backbone, several mannose moieties for the recognition from mannose receptors in sentinel lymph node macrophages as well as a chelating agent, necessary for binding to the radioactive metal.
The sentinel lymph node theory assumes that the first lymph node to receive lymph and metastatic cells from the primary site of the tumor is also the first site of the lymphogenic spread of the disease, that there are no skip metastases and that the absence of metastatic disease in the sentinel lymph node implies the absence of metastases in the entire lymphatic pathway. Thus, with the administration of these complexes, it is possible to in vivo visualize and localize the sentinel lymph node in a non-invasive manner.
