[Histonet] Re: Radioactive substance

[RSRICHMOND <@t> aol.com]

Rita Humphrey asks: >>Would anyone please share your procedure for handling 
sentinel nodes removed in surgery that have been treated with radioactive 
substance?<<

We've discussed this subject on Histonet several times, though not very 
recently. Sentinel lymph nodes are labeled with technetium 99m sulfur colloid. The 
amount of radioactive material present in the lymph nodes - or in the 
subsequent lumpectomy specimen - does not require any special handling beyond the 
usual precautions. Radiation safety people may impose restrictions, but from an 
viewpoint of actual safety they are unnecessary.

Technetium 99m has a half-life of six hours. It emits a gamma particle and 
becomes technetium 99, which has a half life on the order of hundreds of 
thousands of years. The minute amount of it present is not considered hazardous.

To put it very crudely: you could eat the specimen and nothing much would 
happen to you from the radioactivity.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN
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