This release notes several times that sestamibi SPECT/CT is inexpensive and widely available. It would have been good to include some cost estimates, particularly since reducing unneeded surgeries by the “thousands” presumably would be a huge cost savings. The release states that “The addition of sestamibi SPECT/CT increased the reviewers’ diagnostic certainty in 14 of the 48 patients, or in nearly 30 percent of all cases,” and that “Conventional imaging combined with sestamibi SPECT/CT had a value of 0.85, while conventional imaging alone had a value of 0.60.” The release offers that “a value of 0.50 indicates that a diagnostic test is no better than chance,” to give readers a benchmark for comparison. The release does address harms in terms of reduced harms from adding the imagining technology to standard diagnostic tests: “Even for patients whose tumors were not reclassified, the addition of sestamibi SPECT/CT increased physicians’ ability to more confidently classify malignant tumors, which reduces the risk of misdiagnosis and unnecessary surgery for all patients, the researchers say.” However, the potential harms from the test itself are not mentioned. Like CT, the test involves the use of ionizing radiation known to increase the risk of cancer. Though often minor, the contrast imaging agents (also called tracers or “dye”) injected prior to the test can cause allergic reactions, headaches, chest pain, dizziness, and other reactions. The release clearly states that the radiologists evaluating the imagery were unaware of the results of the surgery, that is, whether the tumors were cancerous or benign. It also states that “similarly ‘blinded’ pathologists analyzed the tumors without knowing the radiologists’ imaging results.”  This blinding of the researchers lends credibility to the findings even though the study itself involved a small number of participants. No evidence of disease mongering here. The release provides a good discussion of why more accurate imaging is needed for kidney tumor diagnosis. The release didn’t mention a funder. The release describes the results of comparing the diagnostic accuracy of regular CT or MRI scans alone or with the addition of sestamibi SPECT/CT imaging. The release also states that the alternative to diagnostic certainty is surgery, even when it is unknown whether the tumor is malignant or non-cancerous. The release notes in several places, including in the first sentence, that the technique is “widely available.” We know that to be true. The release states that radiologists at Johns Hopkins designed the approach of combining sestamibi SPECT/CT with CT or MRI to improve diagnostic accuracy in kidney tumors. Sestamibi SPECT/CT itself is not new. It is the standard imaging choice for assessing problems with the parathyroid glands, which are adjacent to the thyroid gland. The release does not rely on unjustifiable language.
Noninvasive Imaging Test Shown Accurate in Ruling Out Kidney Cancers